Squeeze, part 4

by J.J. Lewsac

Sandra rushed home after calling the police, wanting to meet them there. When she arrived there were two squad cars parked outside her house, but no sign of the pick up truck she had seen on her cameras. She parked out front and hurried up to a couple of officers that were talking outside her door. 

Sandra identified herself as the owner, and the officers informed her that they arrived after the thief had left, and that they had inspected the outside of the home, and yet hadn’t found any signs of a break in, though that was hardly surprising giving the circumstances of the last two times.

“I have some cameras installed this time” Sandra said. “I know I have them recorded” She unlocked her front door and stepped in with the police officers right behind her. She looked around the house as she lead them up to her bedroom where the DVR had been placed. She hadn’t noticed anything missing.

Sandra turned on the monitor connected to her DVR, and called up the recorded files from the past hour. Her Driveway camera showed an older pickup truck pull in front of her garage. Two teenagers jumped out of the cab, while a third stayed behind the wheel. The pair of boys, one big athletic looking, the other short and skinny, walked around the house and out of view of the driveway cam, towards the back door. A second camera at the back of the house showed the boys walking up in front of the door.

Quequeg came running into frame, and began jumping excitedly at the bigger teenager. He reached out and pet her, calming the dog. Sandra sighed. Some protection you are. “Look at that!” Said one of the officers. They fixed their attention to the smaller teenager. He was on all fours, squeezing himself through the doggy door.  ”I don’t believe it!” Sandra said. She pulled up the smoke detector camera in the kitchen to get an inside view. There the boy could clearly be seen sliding into the kitchen from the doggy door. He pulled himself up to his feet and unlocked the back door, so his larger accomplice could enter.  The two had moved off outside the range of their cameras. it wasnt long though before they came running back into the kitchen. The larger one bolted out the door with a cell phone at his ear.

“I bet his friend out in the truck heard our sirens and alerted them” said one of the officers.

The shorter one locked the door and slid back through the doggy door, and took off running to their truck. They hopped in and sped off down the street. 2 minutes later the squad cars pulled up.

“Okay, so it doesn’t look like they took anything, and we have some great images of their faces. Lets give this video to the local news and see if anyone out there can give us some leads.”

Sandra burned the video file to DVD and handed it to the police.

*****

That night, no more than 2 blocks away, a mother and father were shocked to see their 2 boys and their best friend on surveillance footage being shown on the 10 o’clock news about a home burglary. The boys were taken back to Sandra’s house by their father, where they returned the electronics, paid back the stolen money, apologized for the heartache they had caused, and then headed to the police station to turn themselves in.