When criminal mischief hits close to home

Tuesday afternoon, I found a very bizarre thing in my yard. Well, actually Tovah found it--a big gigantic hole in my fence. Wondering how in the heck she was in the neighbor's yard, I took a closer look. Three large sections of my fence had been completely scrunched up, leaving huge, gaping holes, the dogs could easily walk right under. I was truly aghast! When I inspected the fence inch by inch and ran many scenarios through my mind--animals, maybe my weeding from the weekend, etc., I noticed that roots of weeds had been pulled up, some chain link pieces had been pulled, the fence had been pushed both outwards and inwards. All of these things a re difficult to do and takes a lot of work, even with chain link that isn't in the greatest of shape.

Later, talking to R., my co-worker, she thought perhaps someone was trying to steal my riding fairly new riding mower. A bit worried, I checked yesterday, and it was there fully intact. After talking with neighbors on both sides of me--neither saw anything and Karen who was here taking care of the dogs on Sunday, I decided to file a police report this morning. Once I have that, I'll submit it to my homeowner's insurance. I'm truly grateful to have some nice neighbors and friends who care. Everyone told me if I ever needed anything not to hesitate to call them.

Normally, I do not get too concerned about these type of things, but I'm feeling the heebee jeebees a bit now and slightly paranoid. All those questions like what if someone has been watching me run through my head, but at the same time, I also wonder if I am making too much of it as it could have likely been kids. The neighbor did tell me there were some "bad" boys that lived a few roads down and walk up here. A few years ago, they went around bashing people's mailboxes. The police officer verified the bad boys as well. Despite my partial minimization of the problem, I did ask the policeman if he could have extra patrol around here.

I just keep wondering why someone would want to do this, or why they would go to all this trouble? In all my years of living in the country and alone, I've never had this type of mischief occur. I never worried about locking my door, car, shed, etc. And although this place is certainly not what I'd call crime ridden, it does make me a tad apprehensive. I'm certainly glad I have the dogs, and I hope that would be enough. Sometimes, this is when I feel like training them to bite/growl on cue.

Right now, my mom and her husband are visiting, so it is nice not to be completely alone, but they'll be gone by next Tuesday. Hopefully, the fence will be temporarily fixed by then, and I'll feel less heebee jeebeeish.