I got an e-mail today from a neighbor working in her yard. She just went inside for a few seconds to get a drink, and when she came back her wheelbarrow was gone. That’s the second wheelbarrow in a month that’s been stolen from my neighborhood.
Am I the only one who thinks that’s a strange item to steal? Is there a large black-market demand for wheelbarrows in this city? Are the folks attending March Madness downtown being approached near shady alleys by guys in trenchcoats who say, “Psst! Hey buddy, wanna buy a wheelbarrow?” Or, to think the best of my fellow man, could there have been two recent gardening emergencies that demandeded the immediate commandeering of a wheelbarrow?
What’s the cash value of a wheelbarrow? Maybe we should call the pawn shops and see if there’s a trend — a spike in hot wheelbarrows. We could set up a sting operation. I wonder if it’s the work of a single bandit or if stealing wheelbarrows has become a new gang-initiation ritual. There are so many possibilities….
I really don’t mean to make light of this situation. I would be ticked off if someone stole my wheelbarrow. But I still think it’s the strangest item I’ve ever heard of being stolen.
That’s nothin’. My dad lost two lawnmowers, the second bought a week or so earlier to replace the stolen one.
I mean what’s the risk? Kevin Lyons isn’t going to seriously prosecute anyone for stealing a lawnmower OR a wheelbarrow.
One day last summer my wife went by our front door only to see a man outside in our front yard.
He had his back to her and was walking toward a lawnmower on the sidewalk. When he moved to get behind the lawnmower and walk away she noticed a big green plastic pot on top of the lawnwomer.
She recognized it immeadiately.
It was one of two pots we had put in the ground on each side of our steps with full grown hostas in them.
She could have called the police … but didn’t.
She could have gotten scared and just walked away … but wouldn’t.
No, she went outside, and with a voice I’ve heard her use on me more than once in 25 years of marriage asked him what he was doing as he turned and started down the alley alongside our house.
He told her he didn’t think anyone lived here despite the van out front and all the kids stuff on the front porch.
She told him to put the plant back and stood there watching him as she gave him directions to go get dirt that had fallen off the bottom of the pot onto the sidewalk.
That’s quite a tough little lady I’ve got.
Blame it on Jackass, but if two teenager boys come across a shopping cart or a wheelborrow, one of them is bound to get in it and let the other push him into a shurb or off a curb into traffic. The good news is the darwin effect usually takes care of these people.
Aren’t wheelbarrows used in meth mixing?
A turtle was mugged by a gang of snails. Afterwards, the police asked the turtle “Could you describe the suspects?” to which the turtle replied, “I didn’t get a good look at them – it all happened so fast…”
Several years ago I put up Christmas lights for the first time. About two weeks before Christmas, I came home and the lights were not on. The first thing I thought of was the timer. When going to check if it had somehow misfunctioned, I noticed both extension cords running to the lights were missing. Not only theives but they must hate Christmas as well. Extension cords, wheel barrows, lawnmowers…Anyone missing a weed wacker? Sounds like we have the makings of Thievery Lawn Care Service. Oh, wait, that might require WORK.