Several weeks ago I purchased a few items from Sugar Boutique. If you haven't checked out Sugar, make sure you do! They have a GORGEOUS selection of clothes. Some of the items I bought were Mother's Day gifts for my mom and one was a dress for myself. When I came home from the West Coast, Erik said he never received a package. So I decided to call the store and see if they had a tracking number. The girls were extremely helpful and tracked down the package. It was delivered a few days after I purchased it.
I assumed it got lost in the mail so I called the USPS. They opened up an investigation and learned it was delivered to my home and left on the front porch. I was baffled. It was a pretty large box so there was no way we could have missed it.
A few days went by and I got a strange feeling that maybe someone stole it. I felt kind of violated. I had no idea where to begin looking for a mail thief. But then I spoke to a friend who is a local police officer. Apparently stealing mail is a VERY serious crime. In fact, it is a federal offense. Theft of US mail is investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service and is a Federal offense for which the maximum penalty can be incarceration in a Federal Penitentiary.
I decided to start my own investigation. A sweet boy lives down the street and I pay him every so often to come and mow the lawn and help plant flowers. I went and spoke to him first. I told him that someone stole a box off my porch and the first person to tell me who is was would get 20 bucks. Sure enough, 5 minutes later one of the teenagers in the neighborhood came over and told me he saw another teenager steal the box. He saw the kid grab it off my porch and then bragged to the other kids that he was going to sell whatever was inside to a pawn shop. These darn teenagers are really getting mischievous these days!
I had to make a choice, call the police and get the child in some serious trouble or go and confront him myself...
The hard part... the boy is an incredible tennis player. He plays on Dorman High School's Varsity team and is expecting to go to college on tennis scholarships. I am pretty sure if I called the cops and he was convicted of stealing the stuff he would get kicked off the tennis team and his entire future would be down the drain. Not to mention he would get sent to the Juvenile Detention Center. I decided to confront him myself.
I think I scared the crap out of the kid. I explained the severity of stealing mail and told him several kids saw him take my package. At first he denied it and exclaimed, "Why would I steal your box? What would I do with a woman's dress?" He just told on himself. I never told him what was stolen from me I just told him it was a box. He knew he was caught. "If you didn't steal it then how did you know there was a dress inside the box?" But he continued to deny it. So I told him the police would proceed with their investigation and he could get kicked out of school and off the tennis team. I said if my stuff was returned in 24 hours I would drop all of the charges. Twenty minutes later his buddy showed up at my door with a bag full of my stuff. I'll be honest, I wanted to slap the kid across his face. But I smiled and thanked him for returning my belongings and told him that I would tell the police that they could drop the investigation.
I found out today the same child has vandalized our neighbor's car (with black spray paint), has spit in young girl's faces and cussed at them on a daily basis, has pooped on a neighbor's front porch, and ruined the community pool. Oh I forgot to mention he egged two houses and spray painted another neighbor's garage. People have tried to talk to his father and he doesn't seem to care that his child is the neighborhood terrorist.
What do you think we should do? Should I go speak to his father? Call his tennis coach? Reach out to him personally? I feel like a lack of parental guidance is probably his main issue and he is seeking attention. But at this point he is terrorizing the young children in the neighborhood and causing a ridiculous amount of problems. I would appreciate any suggestions!
