In The Last 24 Hours

Last night, we took Peyton out for ice cream to celebrate his birthday. We were in the shop about 10-15 minutes, but when we returned to the car, it wouldn't start. I have a smart key, which seems cool til you have to use it all the time and then you just wish for a regular key. So anyway, we thought it was a problem with the key not registering as the car was acting funny when only a little bit before it was fine.

I dug through the manual as Larry became more flustered. The boys were a little hyper and then Elizabeth started crying. Mistake number one. ALWAYS BRING THE DIAPER BAG! Even if it is only going to be a quick trip. When after 20 or so minutes, I couldn't find a solution, I went ahead and called our friends to come and get us before there were full meltdowns from my husband and baby.

This morning, I contacted Mazda and the service tech suggested that it may just be the smart key battery that needed replacing. Hoping it was that simple, I headed to Walgreens to buy a battery and then we went back to the car. No such luck. We tried jumping the car. No such luck. Finally, I broke down and called roadside assistance and they sent a tow truck. Thankfully, or so we thought then, they were able to jump the car and get it started and I headed to the local repair shop we use.

After waiting for an hour, the service tech informed me that even though he installed a new battery, the car wasn't holding the charge and he recommended I go to Mazda in case the car was under warranty and it was an electrical issue. By this time, I was starving, so I headed home first.

When I pulled into the cul-de-sac, I noticed there was a car in the driveway. At first I thought it was my father in law and when I saw the car's reverse lights come on, I just pulled to the side to let him out. I quickly realized it wasn't him, especially, when the car basically did a three point turn into my grass in order to pull out forward out of the driveway. I thought it was weird, but thought maybe they were salesmen or Witnesses.

As I was getting out of the car, another car swung around the circle and a lady asked me out her window if I knew the car that was just in my driveway. I walked a little closer as it was so odd and answered no. She told me she was a police officer and I noticed then the uniform. Apparently, they had been watching this car throughout the city. She left then and told me she was going to follow them.

I went inside to talk to Larry about it and not 2 minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was two more uniformed cops asking for information. From what they said, there has been a string of break-ins in our city and this car had raised suspicion, so a dozen undercover cops were following it. Great! They assumed the people had gotten spooked and pulled into our street attempting to lose the cops.

I gave what little statement I could and I thought that would be the end of it.

After grabbing a quick lunch, I headed to Mazda to get a new battery.

Three hours later.

I pulled into my house to yet another strange car. This time, though, no one was inside it. As I opened the door to the house, Larry quickly said, it's ok. It's just a detective. Lovely. This time, I had to actually write my statement down. They had caught up with the car the city north of us and took the three people into custody. With my statement, they were going to charge them with loitering, but the detective said it's not a huge crime, so they would probably be back on the streets tonight.

Thankfully, even though there have been quite a few break-ins, the criminals don't appear to be violent and haven't targeted any houses when the residents were home. Even though I would hate for my things to be stolen, stuff is stuff and I'd rather my family be safe.

I never knew staying at home would be so exciting.