They tried for the hat trick yesterday. Third time in three weeks, second time this week.
Please note that I said tried.
The guy walked up the alley, checked out the houses. That's what my back neighbor said - she saw him. (Sweet little old lady, love her to death.)
He walked up, saw the window was open.
Walked around the front of my house, saw there was no car there.
Walked around the side of the house, hopped in through the (conveniently) open back bedroom window.
Opened up the bedroom door, took a couple steps into the hallway.
And then he shit himself, because I was home. I'd parked my car in that sweet little old lady's driveway.
And I was armed.
And I kicked open the door to the second bedroom, and pulled a Mosin-Nagant M44, with bayonet fixed, to my shoulder, yelling 'FREEZE, MOTHERFUCKER!'
Unfortunately, his reactions were quicker than I had expected, given the circumstances. Before I could get the rifle up, he had turned around and was in the bedroom again, making a dive for the window. I had the shot on his back, but I couldn't take it, not in California. I'd have been looking at murder one.
God DAMNIT I hate California.
If I'd waited another 15 seconds before jumping him, he'd have been in the living room, with no way out except through my bayonet or by messing with deadbolts, and I'd have been on him then. Surrender or die, then. If he went for the door, I'd have had time for a buttstroke to the head, or a bayonet in the kidneys.
As it was, he made it out of the house, and last I saw he was running down the alley. Goddamn, I've never seen a fatboy run and jump like that. He could have made the Olympic team!
Cops looked, but didn't find him. There's only two officers on shift at any given time.
UPDATE: The description (shortish, fattish, Mexican, no facial hair or visible tattoos) got passed around to the neighbors. One of them reported him scoping out houses in the alley behind her house this morning. Cops were scrambled, but didn't find him. Odd how that description blends in pretty well to the background in California.
UPDATE II: The landlord is pretty definitively clear on this one. It turns out there's been a chain of burglaries happening all over this part of town. There's been 5 or 6 in the past couple weeks, all within 2 - 3 blocks of where I live.
