It starting to get to where if I am bored, something is bound to either go wrong or crazy around here.

Yesterday started like any other. We had a client coming out for lessons. I had given her the combo to the lock box so that she could let herself in.

Jeremy was out riding and the kids and I were in the house doing regular stuff when I get a phone call from the client saying she is putting the combo in the lock box but it won't open. I say "no problem, I'll be down in a sec and let you in."

I get down to the gate and take a look at the lock box and see that someone has tried to break it open (again) to steal the keys. It was hard to tell but I could see the marks from a screw driver or something that they used to try and pry it open. It was jammed and you couldn't even open it with the combo. So I let her in and come back to the house, called the sheriff to make a report about it. I had decided I was going to try and have a quiet day in the house since the wind was howling for the third day in a row. I had drug out a box with old pictures in it and wanted nothing more than to sit on the kitchen floor with the kids looking at old pictures.

Then the phone rang. It was the deputy. He was on the dirt road and asked me to drive down and meet him at the gate. So I throw on my shoes and toss the kids in the car along with Moose and head down to the gate. Steele stayed in the car while Sage and I started telling the deputy the story of what has been going on with the lock getting cut and the lock boxes getting broke into. Just filling him in on what all has been going on around here when he says to me "here comes a truck behind you" Sure enough, on the inside of the gate coming down, fully loaded down with stolen items off a ranch up the road were two "gentlemen" in a little white truck. The older man that was driving gets out of the truck and proceeds to tell us how he was coming from the ranch up the road and they didn't think it was a big deal and he can put the stuff back if we want them to. Can you believe that?!?! So I say to him "how did you get in here?" He pulls out a key and says he got his from his neighbors cousins brotherin law.......So I take the key from him and put it in my pocket. The keys were all numbered for just this reason. I figure I will check my list later and find out just how he got this key.

About this time I say to Sage "GET IN THE CAR NOW!" She heard my voice and got in the car and her and Steele sat down on the back seat and stayed there.

The deputy started questioning the guys while I waited. Trying my best to bite my tongue and not esculate the situation any. I did tell the scumbags that they should be ashamed of themselves and I didn't care if "everyone else is doing it too" that it still didn't make it right.

So the deputy says to the scumbags "I want you to turn this truck around and show me where you took this stuff and you are going to put it all back." He asked me to follow them back up the hill also. I had to open the gate for the deputy and lock it behind us so in the small amount of time that the guys turned their truck around and I closed the gate and walked back to my car they were already around the bend in the road. I walked back to my car and damn near stepped on the scumbag passengers crack pipe he had thrown out the window!!!! I couldn't believe it. Now I was really crapping bullets! I had left the house without even telling Jeremy were I was going figuring I would be right back and since I was meeting the sheriff I left my gun at home! It was crazy! So there I was holding the guys crack pipe (wrapped in a napkin) driving up the road following the cop who is following the robber through a canyon with no cell reception and I am thinking should I call the cops!!! Duh!!! And I am thinking how the hell am I going to tell the cop that the dirtbag threw his crack pipe out the window without the dirtbag knowing I have it.........

So I am giving the kids strict instructions that if I tell them to do something they need to DO IT! No asking me why Mom.......they just need to really listen and be good.

So I have Sage saying "cool MOM! We will."

Meanwhile poor Steele is saying "I wish I would have stayed hooooommmmmeeeee!"

So we get to a place where I can pull up next to the cop and get him to roll his window down and tell him what just happened and show it to him. He says okay just stay here. So I had the kids get on the floor of the back of the car until I felt it was safer. The cop speeds up and gets behind the guys who are now at the back gate of the property where they took the stuff. He pulls them all out of the car and pats them down and then cuffs the passenger guy and puts him in the back of the car. I look in the back seat and both kids and Moose are hunkered down on the floor of the car! It was hilarious now looking back on it. Even the dog on the floor! I told them they could get up and see if they wanted once the guy was cuffed. Of course I had to take a picture even though I didn't have the memory card for my camera and could only take a few. So they go back and put the stuff back whole I wait. Then he radioed the station to have them meet him at the pavement with another deputy and a tow truck. I drove them down and let them all out the gate and he had the driver drive the truck down and then he arrested him at the pavement and towed the truck. I was so darn happy to catch these guys. I am pretty sure there are more involved though so we are staying on alert and making sure we have protection on us at all times.

Couldn't have been better timing though!