Operation Easter Egg haul = EPIC FAIL (funny true story)

[underpants]

So yesterday afternoon we get home and I am watching the Masters while my wife is hiding Easter Eggs outside for Josie's THIRD egg hunt of the weekend (one each at the grandparents). Front door open, windows open, TV on-clearly we were home

Suddenly I hear my wife say "HEY! drop those eggs" from inside the den where we all were (Josie was watching a movie on the computer)

All I see is a red t-shrit and eyeglasses and a kid dropping the eggs he had in his hand right in front of the open window.

I rush out the door barefooted and in "house pants". I look around, listen, and then head up to the side street and see two kids walking down the street 200 yards away and... a red t-shirt heading towards a house on the right. I rush back in throw on some shorts and running shoes and jump in my car.

I get to the end of the street not seeing anything. Then I see the red t-shirt at the corner house cutting through the yard. I stop. As I get out of the car I see a plastic green egg cracked up and a package of Nerds---what I didn't know was that my wife had hid this one on my car basically I was planting evidence.

"Hey, did you steal Easter Eggs from my house?" I was in full COP mode (those movies and TV finally paid off) I hold out the planted evidence.
"Huh? me?"
"What's your name?!?!"
"Mike" (names changed)
"Mike WHAT?"
"uh"
Where do you live?" he is shaking at this point, wheels aren't turning anymore
so I just start peppering him with the same questions "What's your name? Where do you live?" at least three times
Finally he says "Mike Jones" he lives "there"--> points down the street
I ask "Are your parents home?" NOW he is really shaking. "Meet me down there" I jump back in my car and turn it around.

When I get there there is another kid "Tim" on the front porch. This kid had a story and was sticking to it-they were at the Sip'n'go (name changed) and just got back- not possible to cover that ground on foot in that amount of time. "Mike" tells me that his parents aren't home only his sister...so I say "We'll see" ( I know they are lying) and ring the doorbell. No answer. Then I pull a Columbo, I turned around and start to walk away and do a 180 and say "Who is that in the backyard?" Both kids freeze. It was "Tim"'s father. I find out that "Mike" is not the kid with glasses real name HE is Tim. Dad says "We'll meet you down at your house". By the time they all got there the missing money (had been in the eggs) suddenly reappears. Dad has "Mike" and "Tim" apologize to me and my wife.

Later the fake "Mike"'s folks show up at our door. The kid is in real trouble. He seems really afraid when I mention that I think that the big bruiser of the neighborhood is involved (I was wrong about this) THEN fake "Mike" gets REALLY scared. Turns out this is the same family whose dog we found in our yard New Year's Day -small world- and returned to them (I was in house pants then too). His folks also are aware that he lied about his name.

About an hour later a third parent is on our doorstep. I was expecting at some point the "how dare you accuse MY BOY...." thing but this dad had the kid in tears by the time they got there. This kid is the sidekick of the big bruiser (they raked leaves for us a few years ago) but they tell me that it was someone else involved and that Dad tells me that she is his niece and that he will take care of that.

So all in all the parents were great. These kids clearly fear getting caught and that is a good thing. If they didn't have good home-training they would have been a lot more defiant through the whole thing.

Oh and next weekend "Mike", fake "Mike" ("Tim"), and the third kid are mowing our grass and washing our cars :-)

Nice neighborhood.