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Thursday, May 26, 2011

You're gonna get your just desserts, and I don't mean cupcakes, Cupcake.

My Mom recently pointed out that I've always had a strong sense of fairness and justice. That hadn't occurred to me before, but I suppose that makes sense. I'm no masked crusader (but wouldn't that be cool?), but my spiky righteous hackles of justice go up when I see or hear about unfairness. Would that make me a hedgehog? Porcupine? I can see it now! The Huffy Hedgehog! Watch out, she gets huffy with evildoers!  Or what about The Piqued Porcupine? Watch out, she gets prickly in a fit of pique! I could have spikes that I could shoot out from me. Pew! Pew! (That was my "throwing spikes" sound...like it?) That would be awesomesauce. What do you think?
Huffy Hedgehog, with action spines of justice! 
I can't stand it when the bad guy wins, (well, nobody can stand it, honestly) and it eats away at me to "just let it go" sometimes. Today I have a heck of a story to tell you, and I'll be adding more to it when my sister gets home and I can properly interview her for every detail.

First, I'll start with Igor's story. This is Igor:
He's a cutie, huh? He's a good boy. He's about 15 years old, and still spry and happy. Until two weeks ago.  On May 13th, my sister's fiance Chris was working at a job site in Garden Grove. He's a contractor/handyman/can do anything guy. Igor usually goes with him on his jobs and wanders around, sticking close and making friends everywhere.  He's the kind of dog who can be off-leash anywhere and he's totally fine. The evening of the 13th, a car pulled into the parking lot, hung out for a few minutes, then the people coaxed Igor over to them. He was picked up, put in the car, and stolen. Gone. Poof. No more than two minutes later, Chris came outside looking for Igor, only to discover he was gone. If you're curious, you can see the footage here: It looks a little vague, but follow Chris's cursor on the screen to get an idea of what happened.
Chris had insisted that Igor was stolen, and he was absolutely right. Luckily one of the shops in the plaza had security cameras that caught this footage, and Chris was able to analyze it to find out what happened to Igor. My sister Julia and Chris printed hundreds of fliers and plastered Garden Grove and the neighboring cities with them, recruiting friends to help. Julia went up there after work every day and continued to canvas the neighborhoods and post fliers.  They even scrounged up some money for a reward, and a friend of their offered to double it to make a $1000 reward. They just wanted Igor back. They tried to file a police report, but the officer didn't think Igor was stolen, and didn't bother. Chris went back to the police department to follow up, but wasn't able to get any help or support. He even showed them the footage, the officer agreed that Igor was stolen, but didn't do anything. RIGHTEOUS ANGER!! *Pew pew* (spikes of justice flying everywhere) 

Anyway, the past couple of weeks have been filled with worry, tears, anger, and lots and lots of fliers. Then yesterday, my sister got a phone call on her cell. In broken english and a heavy hispanic accent, the guy said, "My wife, she pick up dog. She feel terrible, please call back." Julia frantically tried to call back, but the number he left was no good. She waited and worried, then received another phone call a couple of hours later. The story had changed. 
    "My cousin find dog, please call". When my sister gets home later, I'm going to upload a recording of the voicemail from earlier, but the second all she was actually able to answer. 

Julia and Chris looked up the address. There were about ten people listed as living there, and it was in a neighborhood called Crow Village in Stanton. It's a bad, bad, bad neighborhood. Very gang populated, very dangerous. Especially for a little white girl like Julia. They called the Police and let them know they were headed there to get Igor, and the dispatcher urged them to call the Stanton Sheriff's department and get a police escort. They did, and the Sheriff's dept. told them they were familiar with the address from gang activity, and to wait and they would send officers to the address to get Igor. It's so very, very lucky that Julia and Chris didn't go. The officer came back and said "it's a really good thing you didn't come. There were about 7 gang members hanging out there." I think they said Igor was hanging out outside, and the officer was able to safely get him and take him out of there. This is the best ending I can possibly imagine. A friend of Julia's told her to expect threatening phone calls (no reward for them!), but to tell them that she will report them for making terrorist threats and will record any calls she'd receive from them.  That should stop it cold.  No threats yet, so hopefully the thieves will just chalk it up as a loss and move on. 

Julia is fine with me sharing this story, because she and Chris want people to be aware of these rings of dog thieves looking to extort reward money. This isn't just in Orange County, it's everywhere. I remember seeing a video of thugs hoisting husky puppies over somebody's backyard fence, and it made me want to throw up. *Pew! Pew!* More spikes of righteous justice. Be aware, always have your dog on a leash, and make sure they're microchipped and tagged.

When I get home this evening, I'll be writing up another story about how my blog was plagiarized, along with four other talented craft bloggers. We're gathering our armies of Huffy Hedgehogs, otherwise known as fellow crafters, facebook friends, family, and blog followers. I'm tellin' ya, man. Don't piss off crafters. We wield sharp pointy implements. But that story will have to wait for after work tonight! Are you on tenterhooks yet? :D

12 comments:

  1. " I'm tellin' ya, man. Don't piss off crafters. We wield sharp pointy implements."

    That's absolutely true. The only time my hubby won't demand something is when I'm knitting.

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  2. LOL! Smart man. Did you hear that recent story about the woman who came into an emergency room with a knitting needle sticking out of her, and another lodged in her abdomen? She must have plagiarized someone's pattern. ;) True story though! Crafters. Not enemies you'd want to make.

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  3. Thank blooming goodness Igor is safe and sound.

    I, too, have a very keen sense of fair. PEW! PEW! And your last paragraph made me laugh. And I am so very pleased to meet you.

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  4. Tania: The "pew pew" is continuously cracking me up. It's the best onomatopoeia I could come up with. I'm currently browsing your blog, looking for a "subscribe" button. Where the heckety-heck is it? Weird question, but are you on facebook? I'd love to follow/friend you!

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  5. Poor puppy! Glad he is back at home. Probably dreaming of burritos ;-)

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  6. Chris- you're not kidding. Julia said they must have been feeding him beans and other scraps because he's had "the stinkiest butt EVER" (Julia's words), and she also said he "leaked" (and she didn't mean pee) all over his doggy bed last night. Someone's tummy is not happy. But at least he home and safe, and we're all thrilled. :)

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  7. so glad that Igor is now safe. Yes I hope those B*stards get their just desserts. I too have an indignant sense of justice when people do sh*tty stuff like that! pew pew pew!

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  8. That is an astounding story! Thank god Igor is ok and good thoughts to everyone that no pansy-ass puppy-thieving wusses decide they want money. Those guys deserve more than a spike, perhaps you could be a crocodile?

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  9. I wish I had the guts to be a crocodile! Being "too nice" has its drawbacks for sure. My best friend Morgan is definitely a crocodile though, she's never been afraid to go after and fight for justice. :)

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  10. I'm so glad Igor is safe and home!

    I am so angry at the dog-thieves!

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  11. All's well that ends well though, Igor is still happy and healthy at nearly 16!

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