The Case 0f the Kindly Break-In

Every year between Christmas and New Years I host a group of old friends at our cabin near Mt. Rainier. Obviously I arrive first since I have the keys. This year when I unlocked the front door I knew immediately that something was wrong. The lights were on. Then I saw the mess, things strewn all over. The back window was open, the curtains blowing. I should explain that many years ago we installed shutters over all the windows when we were broken into previously. I looked out the back window and saw that the shutter was intact, as were the hasps. I didn’t know that bolt cutters could cut through Master locks.

A survey of the cabin showed some funny things. The thieves took my very good sleeping bag, the vacuum cleaner, the VCR, the electric blanket from the bed in the loft. In fact, all the blankets. They did not take the television set, the two-burner hotplate, the microwave or the toaster oven. They took all of the spare bed clothes, some old clothes from the closet, the can of coffee but not the coffee pot. They took the basins for dish washing and draining, but not the drainer. The trash bags, the small garbage can, the emergency lantern were gone. They left two rolls of toilet paper.

So we have some replacing to do. Thankfully they did not break the hinges or the hasps on the shutter. And they did not break the glass in the sliding window. Small things to be thankful. This is only the third break-in in forty-five years.

The upside is that we can now give the cabin a good cleaning and throw away some stuff that needs to be thrown.