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A Thief In The Night

    Some years ago on a Sunday when I was just a youngster, our church made a special money drive and my dad, Herman Meier, was one of the many members who went to collect from other congregational members that day. When he came home he asked me to make a copy of the amount he had taken in so he could give it to the Chr. Otto Pruess at the special service that night. I laid the list on the table and left for church.

     On arriving home from services we noticed that our basement light was on and just thinking someone forgot to shut it off, my Mom told me to go shut it off, to which I remarked, “No, I'm scared”, so someone else did it.

     We decided to have some lunch before retiring and as Mom opened the cupboard door to get some coffee beans, to her amazement things started falling out. Again we ignored it, and I'm not implying that Mom's cupboard was usually messy as ordinarily it was not, so this was unusual. Then Dad went to the refrigerator to get a summer sausage (homemade one at that) and remarked, “I thought there was still some left,” but we found none, so once again we just forgot about it, ate something else and went to bed.

     Well, my Dad's favorite place for his pipe and Prince Albert was on the window sill, ready to go for the next day. My coin purse (which incidentally had 20 cents in it) and a so-called Woolworth diamond ring which I had just bought was laid on the dining room table as I returned home, along with the hymnals to be put away the next day.

     Well, we all went to bed and after retiring Mom thought she heard noises. But again, we had no fear until we arose in the morning to find we had indeed heard someone, intruders had been at work while we were to church and again after we had come home. First of all Dad noticed his pipe and tobacco were missing. My valuable ??? ring and coin purse taken, but most of all, my mother's precious and valuable gold pendant watch from her upstairs bedroom along with my brother’s clothes and shoes from the room he slept in were gone. Then it all began to make sense. Crackers were taken out of the cupboard that we found disorganized – the summer sausage out of the refrigerator, and liquor out of the basement. One thing for sure, a summer sausage and cracker sandwich and liquor made somebody a good lunch.

     We suppose that they were looking for the money that my Dad had collected. We too are certain we know who did it but one can't make accusations without proof. Everything could be replaced but my Mom's watch, which was a real keepsake. We tried to trace it at pawn shops, but to no avail.

     Funny part of it all was, I guess, the thieves were hiding either in the basement or somewhere while we ate our lunch, since some of the things taken was done after we went to bed. The doors that we locked were still locked and they too, must have had a key to fit. After the excitement wore off we decided to get breakfast and Mom told me to set the table and I said, “Not until I wash every dish.” No doubt the thieves had gone through everything looking for the money my dad had collected. It took awhile to get over the scare, but we were so happy no violence took place and all were ok even though we missed a very precious and treasured article.

              Mrs. Walter (Evelyn Meier) Hack