This is getting serious!

The burglar was back last night. This time it was serious. As best as we can recreate the events, here is what happened.

Sometime around 3am, B's sister was awakened by somebody trying to come through the window of the cabana. They had reached through the window and pushed away the stick that keeps the window from sliding open. She yelled and he ran away. (I wish at this point that she had come and told us. She knows we have been having burglar problems.)

We went over to investigate this morning and discovered a ladder still leaning against our wall, on the neighbor's side. I wanted to take it and bring it home and destroy it. Try using it again you creep. Cooler heads prevailed and I just took pictures of it leaning against our wall. Interestingly, while I was taking pictures of it, using the flash, somebody stuck their head out the door of the house, saw me and quickly ducked back inside. Now, I ask you, if you saw somebody, at 6am, leaning over your wall, taking pictures of your yard, wouldn't you question what they were doing? I sure would. But this person just ducked back inside.

While I was doing this, our neighbors, J&L, came walking by. They had an encounter also, about 3:30am. The creep broke into their storage room, which is located on the second floor right next to their bedroom. J heard something and got up to investigate. He caught the guy carrying a box full of his power tools! The creep dropped the box and attacked J with a hammer. He was wearing a mask and it was still very dark out. A scuffle ensued. J has bruises on his face where he got hit and his hand is bloody. During the scuffle, the creep somehow lost his footing and fell off the second floor balcony onto the tiles below. By the time J got down the stairs, creep was up and over the wall next door and gone. J chased after him but couldn't catch him. He headed for the house that is next to the cabana! From the way he was moving, J thinks he may have broken some ribs or his arm. (too bad his damn head didn't break open like a squash!)

The police were called. When they pulled up, the driver had to shake the passenger police awake so they could "investigate". They thought it was all very funny and thought J had some nice tools! And guess what? They told J he should get a dog!!!!

Later this morning we are all going to the police station to file a formal report and hope that they launch some kind of investigation. And to complain about the cavalier approach the patroling police have. I doubt that any of it will do any good. Poor rich gringos, you got robbed. Too bad.

Meantime, we are keeping a hammer handy and will purchase some baseball bats. This is all so frustrating. We are 95% sure we know who it is. Now all the police have to do is go to that house and see if somebody there is injured. I doubt that they will do it though. We may have to hire a private guard to sit on our roof at night. Stay tuned.