Original Post: August 14, 2006 @ 20:18
This morning, around 9:00, I took my dog out on a walk, and there was a strange car across the street from my house. When I walked across the street, a guy I didn’t know walked up from behind the house with what I thought was a towel draped over his arm. I said hey, he said “how’ya doin?”, and I noticed that he had really bad teeth. Then, he got into his car and drove away. Something was bothering me about him, so I took a look at the license plate, and walked back behind the townhouses (it’s backing up against a nature area), and took a look around.. I didn’t see anything unusual, so I assumed he must’ve been there for a reason, and wrote it off.
Then, tonight we were walking Chimo again, and noticed a police car by the neighbor’s house. I asked our neighbor what was up, and it turned out that someone had gotten into their house through the back porch door, which was unlocked, and stolen some items, including a ring and and a pillowcase. The timing was perfect – they had been gone from ~8:30-10:00 this morning. I gave the police officer all the information I could remember (make/model/color of the car, a general description of the guy, and that the license plate had sequential numbers in it), but I am really kicking myself for not going with my instincts and calling the cops right away, or at least writing the license plate down. If the police do find the guy, at least I will be able to pick him up out of a lineup — he had fairly distinctive features.
Ah well.. next time. I guess it’s better to be paranoid about something and be wrong than to dismiss something but have been right. Our house is gonna be locked up tight for the near term.. hopefully the police will catch the guy.
Update: August 22, 2006 @ 13:35
Well, the detective just called me back on this.. it turns out that the guy has robbed 14-15 other houses, and the car I saw him in was stolen out of a house in July. LOVELY! They are having me come in to look over some mug shots and such.