It Could Happen Next Door --

and did!

We woke up Saturday morning to yellow crime tape ringing the tree in our frontyard. Our neighbor got burglarized! His car and motorcyle were stolen. The thieves rolled them quietly down the hill, and were trying to start them at the bottom when another neighbor called 911. (We've had several burglaries in our neighborhood in the past 6 months, and a lot of people are extra-aware of Weird Stuff Going On.)

The guys got away, but not without a gunbattle with the local constabulary, being trapped on one of the back roads -- you can find out more here:
http://cbs4denver.com/local/Search.Armed.Burglary.2.759365.html

The strange thing: even though they were supposedly out of the neighborhood, we still saw a helicopter circling around the neighborhood -- a grass fire just 'happened' on the hillside around 2:30 a.m. -- we had SWAT teams and police cars wandering around the neighborhood --

And early Sunday afternoon, we couldn't get back to our house: the street, both top and bottom, was blocked by flashing-light police cruisers. Eventually they -- and a SWAT team and 2 more cruisers -- left, and we were allowed back in. But we weren't told why. (And the neighbors who were still at their houses were totally unaware of what was going on. Our big woofy dogs were equally clueless -- they were sprawled out snoozing in the sun.)

I hate this.

It seems like one of the guys-at-large was still hanging around. But why not warn us?? Why not at least give us some kind of description, so we'd know who to look for?

Sigh.

It's now late Tuesday night, and for all we know, Mr. Lawbreaker and Mr. Lawbreaker #2 are camping out in the grove below our yard. Maybe I should invite them in for s'mores.