EPISODE 1086: LETTER TO A THIEF

alan skeoch

Jully 22, 2024

Newspaper clipping — after robbery — hard to read I know

THE ROBBERY 

“Never be hostage to fortune, Alan.”  said Evan Cruikshank  a few days after the robbery. 

Little consolation  initially.  The theif was bold as brass.  He (or she) took it easy …even

took time sort the dishes only taking the best. Same applied to the furniture.  Onlythe best was

taken.  Most embsrassng to me was the fact he (or she) backed my trailer top to the

front door of the farm to make the loading easier.

That happened decades ago.   Today I found an old newspaper clipping written after the robbery

titled LETTER TO A THIEF.   Maybe he would feel a bit guilty.

Fat chance of that.  Fat  chance of guilt that is.   The thief did respond though sending a letter 

telling me to shut up or he (or she) would set the house on fire.  Now that scared me.

I shut up.   Kept my funny remarks to myself.

FUNNY REMARK

The thief stole the big round dining room table…huge thing made of  oak,… expandable, fine

carpentry.  I thought the thief would want the history of the table to help him sell it  (must have been a

man or a  big woman  or both)  

TEETH MARKS

“You may have noticed the deep scratch marks in the table.  They are not  scratches.  

Those marks were made by Andrew’s teeth on his birthday party.   Marjorie had stuffed his

cake with wrapped coins…nickles, dimes and quarters.  Unfortunately Andrew got a piece 

with notihng in it.   So he threw a tantrum and bit the table.  The teeth marks are there.

A kind of provenance as the art dealers say

SILVER LINING

Remember how  this story opened.  i.e. “Never be hostage to fortune” In short “Never

let things  own you.”  A sure recipe for unhappiness.

Well we had a choice after the robbery.  Sell the farm or restore the farm.

We chose to gut the old farmhouse of 1870’s vintage.   The thief had already

done part of the work.  

Would I shake hands with the thief?  Maybe I had already done that and

did not know it.

alan