I had to get back to school on August 31, but Those Johnston Kids didn’t. Grade schools didn’t start until after Labour Day and that left us without any sort of child care for the week. The corrupt daycare that they were in last year refused to take them back, despite having room, because we didn’t pay them over the summer when the kids were travelling. I understand the need to keep the daycare full in order to cover expenses, but that’s just extortionate.

So we all went to law school together. They only had to sit through the one class on Mondays. The kids were invited into the class to listen in, but declined, preferring to sit out in the quiet sun room with their books and handhelds. My professor came out to meet them on the break and they were uncharacteristically mute. I felt like the guy in that old Warner Brothers singing frog cartoon.

It wasn’t until Tuesday, September 1 that we discovered that the car had been robbed in the driveway Sunday night, mere hours after we arrived home at 10 PM. Someone had quietly opened the doors grabbed a few things and ran. The crook stole our ashtray and the $3 in change in contained, the power inverter (but not the required power cord), a bin full of books, another bag of children’s books and, as we realized later, our camera. The camera wasn’t worth anything, being just a 10-year-old point and shoot with a broken case, but it contained all of our vacation photos. Sigh. I was saddened at the theft of the camera, but annoyed by the theft of the ashtray. Do you know how hard those things are to replace?

This happens fairly regularly in our neighbourhood. There is some ass who periodically enters vehicles that the owners have forgotten to lock at night and makes off with whatever odds and ends might be negotiable. We’ve never had anything of great value taken, but one of these days I will set up an infrared camera and catch the crook once and for all. Or sew up a costume and devote my life to fighting crime under cover of darkness.

In the meantime, pending vigilantism, we put up some signs in the windows of the house and car, offering a reward for the return of the camera and vacation photos. We got no response from the thief, but over the next few days commiserating neighbours dropped by to ask about the crime and share stories about their own losses. Finally, towards the end of the week, Mama heard a rumour from one that a dog-walker had found a number of discarded items that could be ours. He offered to pass along our address and we crossed our fingers.

Then it just got weird. The kids found the ashtray on their way to school, at the end of the street. The bag of books was found a block away on the lawn of a family whose kids went to the same public school as ours. They had heard through the grapevine about our loss and connected the dots. Then, about 10 days after the theft, the bin itself was dropped off by someone – not a the dog-walker – who found it cast aside as well. In it were all the worthless and/or useless electronics, including our camera!