For the past few mornings I’ve watched a pickup truck come by the house, slow down to a crawl and then try and coax our beagle, Buddy, out to the road. The truck never stops and as he’s cruising by real slow he’s calling and whistling for Buddy to follow him.
The man behind us had his beagle stolen a few months ago and from the way the guy in the truck is acting I think he might be trying to steal Buddy. Fortunately, we keep Buddy on a real long leash when he’s in the front yard and while he can run the length of the yard, he can’t follow this guy.
On the third morning I decided to wait for the guy and see what he’s doing so I pulled a chair over behind our boat (where I can’t be seen from the road) and waited. Sure enough, a little while later, this guy comes by, real slow, whistling and calling for Buddy to follow him. I jumped up and ran out towards the road yelling "Hey, do you need something?" and as soon as I did the truck sped away real fast. I got a good look at the guy but didn’t get his tag number.
I told the Island King about it and described the guy and the truck.
So yesterday the Island King is coming up to a red light and a truck and driver that he thinks match the description I’ve given him pull up next to him at the light. The Island King decides to get this guy’s tag number and since there’s no one else at the intersection he puts his truck in reverse and backs up so that he can see the tag. He’s stopped his truck and is writing down the tag number when a car pulls up behind him. As he finishes writing the tag number he looks in his rear view mirror and sees the car behind him backing up. The car keeps backing up and he can see the people in the car pointing at him. He said he thought maybe his radio was too loud and they were backing up from the noise (my husband listens to disco so believe me - it’s noise LOL) so he turned the radio down.
As he’s turning the radio down another car has pulled up behind the truck next to him and the woman driving that car starts honking her horn at him. He turned his radio off and can see that she’s trying to tell him something but he still can’t hear her. And then the car behind him starts flashing their lights at him. He said he had no idea what was happening but it’s obvious that something is wrong.
The woman doing the honking finally opens her door, steps out of her car and yells "Your truck is in reverse!"
He’d been so busy trying to get the tag number that he braked while he was writing but never put the truck back into drive.
By now he’s really embarrassed so he slammed the gear shift up and without realizing it went past Drive and into Park. The light changed and he accelerated but since the truck is now in Park the engine just revs real loud but doesn’t go anywhere.
He said the guy in the truck next to him was laughing and as the woman behind that truck passed him she was shaking her head. The car behind him stayed really far back and never would get close to him.
He tells me that he was completely embarrassed and pretty sure that all of those people thought he was drunk but that he got the tag number of the Silverado and a good look at the guy that’s possibly trying to steal Buddy.
I listened to the whole story, sighed and said "Honey, I said it was a Ford F150 - not a Silverado, the man had a mustache, not a beard and his hair was brown not gray"
"Oh, well I've got the tag number for a gray headed guy with a beard if you need it" was all he could say LOL
I worry about that man sometimes.
And that truck hasn’t been back but we’re keeping a closer eye on Buddy.Labels: Done