So our Halloween decorations were stolen. If you didn't see my Facebook status on Saturday- here's what happened. On Friday afternoon, I picked up DS and we put up our decorations. We don't have much and the day before we'd gone to Wal-mart and bought a few other little things to do. This is the first year that DS hasn't been simultaneously horrified/scared and excited. He's just really excited and he loves all things Halloween. He really doesn't care about Trick or Treating- he just wants to wear a costume. So decorating was a big deal for him. We put our stuff out and I had a thought to myself "I really wish we had a way to lock this shit down because I bet some idiot tries to steal it" but I resigned myself to the fact that our things are nothing spectacular. All told, it's probably $50 worth of stuff.
Go to bed that night. Our shitty, redneck, white trash neighbors are of course, being loud and having a party. DH and I have always contemplated calling the cops but we don't because hey- we aren't always quiet either and we figure that part of our problem is the layout of our house in regards to their backyard. Our neighbors suck giant donkey dick though. They have like 10 people living in that house, they smoke and their cigarette butts (and other trash) end up in our yards (front and back), the loudness, they have some trees that overhang our property and get leaves (but I blame their property management group more for that), and there was a night that at like 1 am they rang our doorbell for no reason. We haven't complained about any of that mainly because we can't prove it without a doubt. I mean realistically, I really doubt the cigarettes or trash is from someone down the street. Could they be? Who knows. And seriously, I peg these people as the sort of idiots who would retaliate.
Okay- back to decorations. They have their party. The next morning, DS wakes up and wants to see the decorations. We go outside, and it's gone. All of except a few things (that are like in total worth about $5). DS didn't understand. He knew DH had left early for work so he thought DH had taken them all inside, and YAY! he got to decorate again. I had to tell him that was not the case.
Kuus- yes I was angry. And I still am sort of mad, but at this point I'm not wasting the emotional energy on it.
I called DH and told him, and I said that I thought it was the neighbors. We live in the sort of community where tons of people decorate for holidays. The HOA has a big Halloween party planned for the entire neighborhood. ToTing is huge- we go through a ton of candy and on Halloween night the local fire department comes through with the fire truck and gives out candy. People are just really friendly and our big scandal is someone was screwing with the sprinklers in the community parks. Point is- stuff like stolen decorations or kids being idiots just doesn't happen.
I shrugged it off. DH met up with us later on that afternoon to go grocery shopping with me. He ended up getting home about 10 minutes before I did. When I got home, he was in a foul mood. Apparently, he went next door and yelled at the neighbors. He said the guy that answered the door was drunk (this was 4 pm) and probably had no idea what he said. But DH told them that the next time he hears any sort of noise from the house after 9 pm, he's calling the cops. He wrote a letter and sent copies to the property management group and the HOA with a whole laundry list of complaints about these people. DH told me later that again it wasn't money- it was seeing DS have to figure out someone stole the decorations.
Of course, I know we'll never see anything returned. But I am interested in seeing if we hear from the property management/HOA on this.
To be continued (maybe)....