Our detergent had been stolen overnight. From the laundry room. We once had that experience before, but now it happened three nights in a row. Reason to stop this for the future. And so, we came up with all kinds of nefarious plans. The movie Home Alone was nothing like it. We’d get this squared away. Push comes to shove, I decided to place an alarm on the door of the laundry room. That alarm would only go off thirty seconds after activation, but still. Of course, that wasn’t enough. So, I decided to make a deep fake detergent bottle, filled with a little Windex for the color and lots of water. I also added chlorine in the bottle so that we would recognize our thief in the street if he managed to circumvent all measures. For the extra effect, we tied four rattling cans to the bottle. Perhaps the sound of these cans would wake us up. Enjoying all the preparations we went to bed that evening. My phone and front door keys were ready, along with Blue’s belt in case I saw danger. But of course, nothing happened during the first night. The second night it hit. The alarm went off early in the morning at a quarter past six. I was immediately awake and saw through the window an elderly man fleeing to our gate, which was slightly ajar. I quickly turned off the alarm and went after him. He saw me coming, tried to find another way out, but knew he had been caught. The adrenaline still going through my body, I clearly told him not to try doing this again. I took a nice picture of him with my phone (great preparation) and told him that I would call the police next time. He was shocked, which I found endearing. Fortunately, he understood the lesson, he has not been back. Who knows, maybe he will buy his own detergent in the future.
