We came back from a trip to Baltimore to discover that our grill, patio furniture, and new garden hose were stolen out of our backyard while we were gone. They left the hummingbird feeder as, perhaps, a little welcome-to-the-neighborhood gesture of kindness.
I'm a writer and mom living in Oakland. This is my personal blog; I write about parenting, cooking, local issues, books, and anything else that's rattling around inside my head.
I am the author of The Millennial Sword, an urban fantasy novel set in San Francisco, and two read-aloud picture books for kids, The Big Booger Bubble and Gail Murphy and the Piskies.
My short fiction is included in the anthologies Fae, Love Hurts, and Speculative Story Bites:
May 31st, 2010 at 11:25 am
Dude! That is NOT COOL. I’m sorry. 🙁
May 31st, 2010 at 2:12 pm
That’s horrible. 🙁 Hope you had a good weekend otherwise!
May 31st, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Bastards. I’m so sorry that happened to you. The east bay is totally shitty for patio furniture thefts.
May 31st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Thanks, everyone. We went out and bought a new grill today. The most upsetting thing is just knowing that burglars were *in our back yard.* At least they just took the grill and furniture, and didn’t get in the house.
June 1st, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Other things not stolen:
* garbage cans
* empty cooler that may have smelled funky
May 31st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
oh bloody hell! that’s awful. I’m so sorry.
did you get a grill with side panels?
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:01 am
Sam ended up getting exactly the same grill again, except with a hook attachment to hold his tools.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:32 am
I understand taking the patio stuff and the grill, but the hose? Seems kinda low.
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:01 am
I know! It’s the hose that rankles me the most!
And, you know, when our laundry was stolen out of the basement of our old apartment building, we could at least tell ourselves that it was probably a homeless person freezing on the street, and they needed those sweaters more than we did. But nobody steals a barbeque grill out of desperate and immediate need, y’know?
June 1st, 2010 at 8:51 am
Nothing quite says, “Welcome to the neighborhood!” as petty theft. (Or grand theft?) Yay. I’m so sorry. This is the second case of patio furniture”mysteriously” walking off a friend’s property in the past month. Jeez.
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:08 am
It was definitely petty theft. The furniture was just an IKEA folding table and chairs, and the grill was a low-end Home Depot model. Even with the garden hose I don’t think they made off with more than $200 worth of stuff—and of course they won’t even get nearly that if they try to resell it. They probably took on a fairly substantial amount of effort and risk for fifty bucks of profit.
I wonder if “Theft: it’s inefficient” would make for a good public-education campaign?