excitement of the day.......

Today we took a stroll up to the Montessori park near our house. The littles and I went to the playground, George and Naomi were trying to play soccer on the soggy field ( we tried going to George George, but it was closed due to flooding).

Jackson rode my bike up a bit later. My bike. My brand new thrift store bike. ;) Grrrr! He parked it over by the soccer net, which is the usual drill when we go to the park.

Of course Manny decided after about 15 minutes that he needed to go to the bathroom. Usually they have a porta-potty, but not this time of year. And it wasn't the type of potty-going that you could send a little boy over to a tree to accomplish.

So, I started packing kids into the stroller and heading towards home. Just as we were starting up the path we heard Jackson and Naomi yelling. I looked over toward them and saw a young man in dark clothing riding away on my bike!!!
The nerve!

Of course we were all shocked and didn't know what to do. So I do what I always do when I don't know what to do. Call Tim. :)
I thought maybe he would call the police, but no, he grabbed Noah and jumped in the van.

Noah called about 10 minutes later and asked for a better description of the kid and the bike ( I guess he never paid much attention to it ;) He said "I think we've got him" and hung up.

Sure enough he and TIm chased him at least 2 miles down Gratiot. He eluded them several times but finally made the fatal mistake of going in a parking lot he couldn't get out of and was cornered. Thankfully, he dropped the bike and ran off ( you never think about the what-if's in situations like this until afterward).
My heroes.

Although, thinking about it afterward, I am sad. Why all the ruckus for a dumb bike? What kind of desperation makes someone steal a bike in broad daylight when the owner is 100 feet away? Maybe he needed it more than I. (Probably he needed it more than I).

Thankfully, the little kids weren't too traumatized. As Jed likes to live life ala Adventures in Odyssey, his comment on the way home was "This is EXCITING!". ;)