At about 6:30 this morning I was startled awake by someone pounding and/or kicking on my door. Thinking wtf I pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt (I'm really glad I did this) and made my way downstairs. I looked out my front window and nobody was there so I headed to the backdoor. As I passed the door to the basement, I heard someone clomping on the staircase. I grabbed my cell phone and a pair of shoes and made a quick exit.
I took a peek around the corner of my house as I dialed 911. There was glass on the sidewalk. A couple of minutes after calling 911, a squad pulled up. I went down front to the officer. "Someone's in my basement," I said. He started up my front steps, stopped, and then asked, "Are you bleeding?" I said no, why. "Stay away," he replied. "There's a blood trail." More squads showed up and the police entered my house. No one was inside, but there was bloody finger and palm prints on the basement wall. More blood was on the outside wall by the door and the front door knob was also covered with blood. A couple of more reports from 911 came from people living down the block who had doors kicked in and windows smashed. More squad cars converged on the block.
Long story short, an arrest was made. The guy was walking down the street dripping blood from the cuts he inflicted on himself breaking into my house and the other ones. He broke into 3 houses. I could only wonder what kind of a nut job would go around breaking into houses in the early daylight on a national holiday when most people are home? I asked the officers if the criminal was from my neighborhood and if he had a history. "No, he lives about a mile away. No, we don't know him, no history. We do know of the place where he lives." I thought the answer was a bit cryptic. They know about the place where he lives. A half-way house? A group home? One of the officers alluded to "mental problems." Duh.
So I spent most of the day making repairs and cleaning. The sidedoor no longer has a window, but plywood. I swept and vacuumed the broken glass inside and outside the house. I know that I didn't get it all and sooner or later I'll step on a piece and be reminded of the intruder. Finally, I washed the blood from the walls of the basement and house, off the steps and the basement floor. I followed the blood trail down the sidewalk as far as the hose reached rinsing it into the gutter. Now I'm going to go have a couple of beers. A Memorial Day I won't soon forget.