Halloween Honey Neighborhood Watch

About a month ago a neighbor of mine committed suicide.  She lived alone and was very depressed and it was very unfortunate circumstances.  Her family only got in to town this past Friday to take care of her home since she lived alone with her cat.  Since Friday several people have been in and out of her house clearing it out and cleaning it.  Yesterday they had a large Dumpster delivered to throw the last of her paperwork, books and general trash away.   Her family had been taking all of her things worth keeping such as furniture and her cute as hell Mini Cooper, but clearly they had taken anything worth keeping themselves and only put actual trash in the trash receptacle.  Her family left her house about seven o'clock last night and left the full Dumpster out in her driveway overnight.

I woke up this morning at around 7am and did what I do every morning, open my front door.  I don't have a ton of windows in my living room so I like the extra light I get in from leaving the front door open with the screen door letting light and fresh air in.  I went into the kitchen and made my coffee and Nutella toast, generally going about my morning business until I peeked out the front door again, and saw three people rooting around in the Dumpster in the driveway.  Oh, hell naw.

It was the other neighbor, some punk in his early twenties who dresses like an Eminem knock-off, one of his friends dressed in all black and some chick in a sweatshirt and pajama pants.  My mouth dropped.  What a bunch of poachers!  This kid and his equally thuggish brother have been a point of contention for me before since I have had to call the cops on behalf of someone who claimed to be dowsed with hot water by these guys before and I watched him be escorted out of his house not three months ago by a few of Anoka's finest.  I was irate.

About a half hour later, my brother-in-law Derek showed up with my niece who I do daycare for.  "Did you see that shit?!"  I ask him as he walks in.  "Yeah, you're neighbor next door is peering out her window too watching them."  I bitched to Derek how annoyed I was and how disrespectful it was for these guys to be opening carefully tied trash bags and digging through them, letting a bunch of papers fly through the neighborhood.  He agreed that is was pretty despicable and left for work.  I then texted my sister and relayed to her what I was seeing.  "Call the cops.  I do it all the time."  She told me.  A few minutes past and the jammie clad chick decided to get out of the Dumpster and go sit in their idling car.  Finally, I marched over to my next door neighbor, making sure these losers saw me, and knocked on her door.  "You seeing this shit?!"  I asked her (in not so many words...) she said that the same group was doing it last night and she and her husband called the police on them.  One of the guys even had a light on his hat.  "Like a miner?"  I asked.  Apparently so.  What the hell did these guys think they were going to find?  Well that cinched it for me.  I marched back to my house and rang up the 'ol non-emergency number for the Anoka Police Department.

I told the operator what was going on, she also took my name, address and phone number and asked me if they were still in the Dumpster.  "Yes!"  I said, "They've been in there for the last hour and a half!"  Not ten minutes later a black and white comes into my neighborhood, right as the black-clad Dumpster diver was examining what looked like a broken foot massager, you know, trash!  The other guy had jumped out of the Dumpster at this point and was walking around the Dumpster itself.  The second he saw the cop car he disappeared into his own house.  Chicken shit.


Here's the best part.  Okay, picture this:  In my house was me, my daughter, my step-son (who was glued to this whole debacle while getting ready for school) my niece and my dog.  Staring out my screen door with no shame was me, my daughter, my step-son, my niece and my dog.  All we were missing was the popcorn.  The cops pull up and catch the guy in black in the Dumpster.  The cop gets out of his car and begins to motion for the guy to get out of the Dumpster.  I couldn't hear what was being said but the guy in the Dumpster was clearly arguing with the cop, shrugging his shoulders and what not.  He finally climbs out, and the cop does not miss a beat, cuffing the guy and throwing him in to the back of the squad car.  It was awesome.  This forces the jammie girl to get out of the car and walk over to the police officer and attempt to argue some sort of case on behalf of her friend.  At this point, unfortunately, I had to leave to bring my step-son to school, but damn!  Was that exciting!  I am a stay-at-home mom....I don't get much excitement in my life, especially during the week.

By the time me and the girls got back from dropping my step-son off at school the cop was gone, but, hey, don't be such gross poachers!

Throughout the day I have spoken to the family of the woman who died and relayed to them how the cops were called and why.  Her brother was not pleased.  His biggest concern was documents that contained her social security and other confidential information was taken and possibly strewn about the neighborhood.  He then told me that they were all done clearing out her house and that nothing was left in there and absolutely no one should be going over to her house, "If you see anyone please don't hesitate to call the cops."  Oh, don't worry, I won't.

Here's the thing.  I don't live in a fancy neighborhood and the people who live here are not rich by any stretch of the imagination.  But that doesn't mean you are allowed to call up your criminal friends to take advantage of a situation that presents itself and that you may somehow benefit from.  That is disgusting disgraceful behavior.  Have a little respect, assholes.  And don't think you can do something illegal at 8 o'clock in the damn morning in the sunlight and think people are just going to allow you to go about your shady business.  Tsk.