The day started out rather mundane. The girls went shopping to Walmart while the men stayed behind and watched the kids. We all had to finish up on the last few things for the trip. Courtney from Dharma...was clearly the winner on this haul - lots of duplicates, triplicates of items....we had all been there. I had already gone several times the day before and Julie from Cee Jem did a lot in Vero Beach. But 10 boxes of instant potatoes bought from Walmart isn't really interesting so I need to figure out what else we did today....hummmm...oh, ya...we snagged thieves in a robbery. No really.... here's what happened. Kerry and I were outside when I saw three early teen boys running through the parking lot with 2 very shiny folding bikes. What caused me to be suspicious is that I had noticed these bikes the other day on our walk. They were locked to the mid deck of another catamaran. I took me a very brief moment to put it all together. The confirmation was the third fellow holding a large pair of bolt cutters. I jumped off of the boat yelling something to do with 'put the bikes down' - 'they are not yours..'. I think the psychology of it all was that someone had stolen our silver bike just before we left....so, this was a bit personal. Kerry jumped off as well and started to run towards them. I ran around the building hoping to cut them off. By the time I reached the front they had pulled ahead. Luckily, they had already dropped one of the bikes. I quickly put it together (as it was a foldable bike) and was in pursuit. I went through a few of the streets in the neighbourhood chasing them on my newly acquired wheels. At each intersection I asked a pedestrian if they had seen boys on a bike. On both occasions they steered me in the right direction. The last person pointed in the direction of a grassy area between townhouses that lead to another street. Off I went. Bingo! There they were. At this point Greg and Courtney (from the other boats) were driving in their car also in pursuit. The second bike was now dropped and the last boy was running. Luckily a police officer had appeared down the street so I called out to him. Lights went on and now the boy was running in my direction. As he approached I began to do an 'S' maneuver on the bike.....just to throw him off a bit. :) Greg and Courtney arrived just as the boy approached me and wobbled past me. They grabbed his shirt and he was now down. Courtney, however, had some rocks thrown at her as he was being tackled....left a poor little welt on her forehead. Team Cruisers win this one. The portly police officer had just caught up to the scene. Panting, he was asking what street we were on - as he was calling for back up. Within moments a couple of other police cars joined in on the scene and the one young man was apprehended. After a few details written in the police notebook....we were free to go. Unfortunately, for the young man...his day would not be that clear. I went back to the boat that I thought that the bikes came from. No one seemed to be on board...so I asked a passer by to borrow a pen first to write down the numbers....but, when he didn't have that, I asked for his phone. I called the emergency numbers on the side of the boat and, wouldn't you know it, they were actually on the boat - unaware that boys had climbed on their boat, gone to the other side and snipped their bikes free. They were grateful and went to find the police officers to identify themselves. When we all found another police officer he reached into his trunk and pulled out a shiny gold sticker with 'Ft Lauderdale Junior Police Officer' on it. He said, thanks for your help....here's a sticker. I asked for a few more for the rest of the gang. By now all of the kids were running around trying to find clues and solve the crime - we all deserve stickers for this one! Sure beats shopping at Walmart! Let's hope the rest of the days are not 'that exciting'.
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