A bit of action on a Saturday morning

It’s been 24 weeks of action, but not the kind of action we had this morning. Having spent a couple of hours restoring the main front door to its former glory, in the new garage, it was time for a quick break.

The window glazier had left a few minutes earlier and the site was pretty much closed down for the weekend, apart from the front door cooking under layers of paint stripper. It’s a beautiful oak door, but hasn’t had much TLC over the last 50 years.

So the sound of something crashing to the ground from the extension area was totally unexpected. My initial thought was that the builders had decided to return for some out-of-hours action – to catch up on a slipping programme. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but it turned out to be some uninvited visitors.

Heading outside, all sorts of things ran through my mind. I don’t have a black belt in karate, nor do I have a spare supply of pepper spray, so the options were limited. Shouting out, four 16-18 year old boys emerged from the utility area in the extension, looking pretty spaced-out and bewildered. Now, the language was more colourful, but my question was along the lines of: “what are you guys doing here?” The answer was: “we’re lost and on our way home…”.

Plausible explanation... You come off the street, onto a building site, through a garage, up a ladder, and try entering a house through a boarded-up plywood wall…

Eying-up the long pieces of timber on the garage floor, thinking I could offer them a bit of a lesson in one-to-four-man combat, I took the split-second decision I would have no chance fighting off four guys with a long stick. I suggested they leave – very quickly.

I’d grabbed the mobile telephone before rushing outside, so called 999 while following the guys down the road. The police responded quickly but it still took the best part of ten minutes before they had two patrol cars looking for the guys. Not surprisingly, the guys had done a vanishing act before the boys in blue turned up. Returning back to site, it turned out these guys had tried to break into the “Link”, which is now used as a storage area. Kicking down a temporary doorframe, boarded up with ply, they had gained access to the room. And it was pretty obvious they weren’t on the way home. Outside, on the landing, they had hurriedly abandoned a toolbox with a pneumatic screwdriver. Given a few extra minutes, and without my intervention, these criminals would have legged it with tools and anything else which took fancy.

And this all took place during broad daylight, just after midday on a Saturday…

I think we’ve had enough action for some time.

Footnote: the builders turned out to be pretty responsive, arriving promptly to put in place additional security measures.