Bad Boys, Bad boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

I'm pretty well-known among friends for being a scaredy-cat. When I was in my super running phase in college I would often go out late at night and after dark. Friends would show concern for my safety and my reply was always that I was more afraid of trolls or ghosts or the supernatural than some robber/rapist type person. I often forget to lock the doors at night, and even if Dave is away it doesn't really bother me. Well, I think that is changing. There were two incidents this week convincing me that I'm not in NM anymore.

The first happened during my sewing frenzy. I was happily sewing a little dress when I hear pounding on a door and someone say "this is bounty hunter, open up or it'll be knocked down". When I looked out the window I was relieved to find that he wasn't at MY door, but at the house next door (not on the driveway side). This is about 20 feet from the window of the room I was sewing in. This guy was wearing a black T-shirt that said "Bounty Hunter", had a giant flashlight, was bald and tatooed and generally menacing. I snuck out the front to cross the street to see what was going on better and see if the neighbor knew what was going on. She said said that next door lady's son must have done something wrong. Now, said son has heretofore been just generaly annoying. Mid 20's, lives with mom, people come to pick him up or drop him off late at night with loud rap music blaring These people also have some fear of getting out of their vehicles, because they just honk the horn. Alot. A few weeks ago, when it was unusually hot there was a man banging on the door wanting to install air conditioning and loser-son forgot/slept through it and so they were charged an extra $100 bucks and couldn't get air for another week (it was the hottest days of the summer). Anyway, I didn't even realize bounty hunters were real. This means that loser-son must have been arrested and jumped bail (this is the postulate of the other neighbor lady's son who looks as if he might be familiar with this situation).

I wasn't ever afraid of my neighborhood before, but it seemed just a little scarier knowing that not only was the next door neighbor a criminal at some level, but a bail-jumping criminal (which is indeed much worse in my opinion).

The second incident happened last night/this morning at 4 am. I usually wake up pretty easily, but I'm not sure what it was that awakened me. I looked out our bedroom window because I must have heard noise. There was some confused yelling, what looked like someone running across and into the back yard. Flashlights swinging wildly. Light over garage clicks on. At this point, Dave wakes up. Not because he heard anything, but becuase I was up and moving around trying to look out the window from the bed. He asked what was going on, I replied that there were people in our backyard and flashlights. Then into the light from the garage steps a figure. A policeman. I threw on my robe and run down to the side door where there is s cop car in the driveway and four cops and a k-9 unit (pretty dog). I asked what happened and after making some crack about me serving them breakfast, they said that someone stole a car, crashed it on the streed behind ours, and ran through our yard. He was apprehended in our yard in the back corner behind the garage.

Then I couldn't sleep for about two hours (Dave of couse was back to sleep quickly) but I eventually nodded off again around 6. This morning I went outside to see what happened. By my pond I have a little statue that was knocked down, and the lily pads are in a different position. I think he climbed the fence and landed in the pond. There is also a shirt (size 2x) laying on the ground there. Did he take it off to be harder to see or because it was all ponded up? In the back corner the top of one of the fence pieces is sort of broken off. He apparently had a hard time getting over the fence.

I think I'll make sure the doors are locked all the time now. Is our neighborhood unsafe?