Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sherlock Holmes, anyone?

What is missing from this picture?
You guessed it... John's truck. It was stolen last night. Last Wednesday morning he came into the house and asked if I had taken his keys out of his truck. Of course I hadn't. He decided that someone had come in the night and stolen the keys out of his truck. Luckily the key ring only had keys for the pickup and a vial of consecrated oil on it. It didn't have the van or house keys on it. (EVERYONE in Pratt - except me, I was raised in CA and we never left our keys in the car so it's habit for me to take them out - leaves their keys in the ignition. It's Pratt, safe town.) Then, last night the missionaries asked us to attend a BBQ with a less active family. We left the house about 6:20. John and the kids got home about 8:40. I stayed to help another lady clean the church house and got home about 9:05. By then John had already called the police and they had come and gone. The officer found a cigarette butt (which the officer took for evidence) and this footprint...
It's from a skater shoe - and not the kind of skater shoe that JJ wears. John said our family prayer (and asked that Heavenly Father keep the robbers safe and that they wouldn't be harmed while they were in our truck) and then we sent the kids to bed. At 1:05 A.M., John's cell phone rang and he sprinted to the kitchen to answer it. They had found his truck! John got dressed and drove over to where they had found it.
(I took this picture at 7:30 this morning when I went with him to pick up the truck.) The truck had been abandoned .2 miles from our house - that's TWO BLOCKS. They had parked it in the parking lot of a rent-to-own center. The thieves had opened the ashtray, probably looking for change - they didn't find any. They had opened the walkman CD player that John keeps in there for when he's driving tractor. All they found was a CD of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. They left that alone. The gloves that were on the seat had been moved to the floor. The CD player that had been on the dash had been moved to the seat. They hadn't driven it very far because the first tank still had 1/4 of a tank of gas in it and the second tank was still full. They had left it in the exact condition they found it - right down to the spare key that John had left in the ignition (he won't be doing that anymore).
It's not a fancy truck. It doesn't have a lift kit or any fun things on it or even in it, but it's our sturdy farm truck and it's paid for... and it's back home where it belongs.

6 comments:

Salsa Mama said...

WOW! Well, I love stories with happy endings. I'd say this qualifies! :)

Frozen Chosen said...

That's amazing! So glad that it worked out well. Amazing how prayers are answered.

Rhonda said...

What a scare! Glad it's safely back home in the same condition it left in!

Natalie said...

WHAT A RELIEF!!! I'm so glad that there wasn't any damage or anything stolen from it. How wonderful John is to pray for whomever took his truck. Who knew he was so sweet. ;)

Jennilee said...

oh my heavens!! im glad everything turned out!!

Becky and Todd said...

cRaZy! I am so glad you got it back without damage. My mom's car was stolen in SD and she got it back too, but they trashed it first. She was so grateful to get it back she didn't care what shape it was in.