NEWS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!!

2017 GIANT'S SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD

The Little League closing ceremonies were held this morning after the championship game.  Elijah's team was beaten last night so his team was out of the running.  The Mets won the championship this year.  Each year one boy from each team is awarded a Sportsmanship Award.  Elijah was chosen this year from his team the Giants.  He was also chosen to play on the All-Star coach pitch team, but won't be able to be on the team due to all the Dazzling Dorrell travels this summer for their ministry.  Way to go, Elijah!  (Last year Elijah got the Sportsmanship Award from a different coach and for a different team.) We are very proud of the thoughtful young man that he is turning out to be!


                                          VICTIMS OF BONNAROO?

Even in a quiet neighborhood like ours...a little after 7:30 this morning this is what our street looked like...four police cars in front of Nathan and Kathy's house and one across the street from us.  Around 7:30am I had quite a fright. I was dozing off after a night of not much sleep...though I was awake enough to hear someone come up our stairs...but I didn't think anything about it...just thought that it was Woody or one of the grandchildren.  Then I started hearing things being dumped out and a loud racket coming from the school room.  At first I thought that it was the children dumping out some of their K'nex building pieces...but when it continued and I didn't hear any giggling or talking, I began to get a bit concerned.  I was pretty sure that there was an intruder.  I had no idea where Woody was (He was on his daily walk and hadn't said that he was leaving because he knew that I was trying to go back to sleep).  My brain started trying to figure out just what I should do...being upstairs there really wasn't an escape route (maybe I could have gotten down the stairs if he had stayed in the school room)...so had to think just what to do.  My phone wasn't close so at that moment dialing 911 wasn't in my brain.  I was standing in front of my dresser, not in direct view when you come down the hallway to come into our bedroom, and trying to decide if I should hurry and close the bedroom door and lock it...when an arm came around the door frame and then a face appeared!  Well, I just started hollering at him as loud as I could (my throat is still a little scratchy!) to get out of my house...and I praise God he did retreat.  As I hollered at him over and over again to get out of my house, he was heading down the stairs and saying that he was leaving and that all he needed was a ride somewhere and that he had hurt his leg (this story changed a bit to each officer that he talked to later).  I just kept forcefully telling him to get out of my house...and for someone with a hurt leg...he retreated quite quickly. I did mention that I would get him a ride during my hollering at him...and I fulfilled that promise as he later got a ride in a police car! After he was out of the house and I had locked the door behind him,  I first checked to make sure that Woody wasn't somewhere in the house hurt or something...then I found my phone and instead of calling 911, I called Nathan and Kathy! And I'm glad that I did as the guy had just knocked on their back door and Nathan was talking to him.  Again the story was that he needed a ride somewhere.  Kind hearted Nathan was considering what to do when they got my call.  By that time at least two police cars were out in front of Nathan's house and Nathan and the guy had walked around to the front of the house to be met by the police. Phew!!!  I went outside and let the police know that he had been in our house and they said that they would come talk to me in a few minutes.  By this time there were two more police cars in front of Nathan's and one in the driveway across the street. (Can you tell that there isn't much for the police to do in Tullahoma on a Saturday morning!?!)  The teenage daughter in the house across the street was the one who called 911 because our intruder had knocked on the doors of her house and then she saw him cross the street and go up our driveway, open our green car door, and then go into our garage.  He did go through the console in our white car that is parked in the garage and pulled things out and just left them on the passenger seat.  And, later I found out that he got in through the garage door that goes into the house...a door that we never (guess I should say "rarely" use) so I don't think to check to see if it is locked...for some reason it had been unlocked today...for who knows how long!  I found it not all the way closed when I walked into our family room to check to see if anything else had been bothered.  Our front door was unlocked too since Woody was on a walk and he doesn't carry keys with him. So I guess you could say that we gave him easy access!

The police came over and talked to me and were each and every one very, very kind.  One came in and saw what the perpetrator had gone through in the school room...he had thrown the paper cutter down on the floor, had pulled out all the containers of paint and the paint brushes, and taken things off the top of the computer desk...strange items to go through and throw around...but I guess when you are probably looking for drugs and/or money you will look anywhere?
 
The police asked me about a weekly container of pills that they found on this young man.  I went and checked and Woody's container was missing from its spot.  They then showed it to me and it was Woody's (nothing taken from it).  Later we found out that he had picked up a baby bottle that is on our kitchen table that we are putting change into for a fund raiser for a local crisis pregnancy center.  I later found that in Nathan and Kathy's recycle bin on the side of their house. Woody is the one who discovered that it was missing because when he came home from his walk, he had change to put in it and it wasn't on the table.

I guess all's well that ends well!  The police are pretty sure that he was someone who was passing through from Bonnaroo...a huge rock concert type venue on the order of Woodstock in the days of yore!  Bonnaroo takes place in Manchester, TN  at this time each year. The town grows by thousands and thousands for those few days.  Manchester is about 20 min. away by car.  The story does go on a bit as a while later  police cars started showing up on our street again...two police cars and later a sheriff's car.  Then two policemen came back and were walking through the yards obviously looking for something.  When they got to our yard they said that they were looking for a set of keys.  They had found a stollen car that had been abandoned in a nearby church parking lot.  The police figured the stollen car and our break in were related.

We have come out of this none the worse for wear...at least I think we have.  One of the policemen said that the young man would be getting jail time due to the fact that he entered our house uninvited (made no difference that doors were unlocked) and also took drugs from us and that what he had done was a felony.  I just hope that he can get off the drugs that he was pretty obviously on (both police and Nathan said that he was pretty "spaced out" on something...hope that jail time will get him off the drugs and that he will come to his senses and clean his act up...but...guess only time will tell.   I am just thankful that he was very docile on drugs...as I easily scared him out of the house and he made no resistance to the police arresting him.  Not your typical day in OUR neighborhood!  

And, the Rest of the Day?

Well, the rest of the day for us was pretty mundane.  I had a hard time spending much time in the house after the break in.  I sat out on the porch for quite a while today...even attempted to put the finishing touches on tomorrow's Sunday School lesson out on the porch...but...hard to wrap my head around anything at the moment! Woody and I had fun watching a large flock of chickadees take turns at the feeder and then a group of nuthatches came also.  Relaxing watching the birds!  Woody went on to the library for his usual Saturday visit.  He has spent quite a bit of time mowing.  And, I'm going to go downstairs as soon as I hit the publish button and make sure that the doors are ALL locked! What was your day like? I hope you had less of an adrenalin rush than I!!!