Really, now that we thought about it, the story starts back when I came back two weeks ago. Garry and I had to go to the hardware store Nova Lenya, and invited Leila to come along, since Valentina had gone to Dnepro, as she often does on her Saturday off. As we left, I locked the door and took the key. At least I thought I did.
When we got home, in just over an hour, there were two neighborhood teens at our door, Garry said they were coming out, I just saw them standing there. The door was unlocked, so Garry said it must not have been locked. Maybe it was jetlag, and I only thought I locked it.
The next day, Garry asked me if I took his red licorice. He said he'd only had a couple pieces out of the bag he'd brought from Canada. We bring our favorite candies back with us and slowly eat them. Yes, there are wonderful tasty treats that you can buy here, but for me, American Hershey bars, and for Garry (although I usually eat a couple licorice) Twizzlers, Rockets (to Americans- Smarties) and peanut butter cups. He can make a package of twizzlers last for weeks.
Anyway, there was no bag of licorice, and I didn't eat any. Garry opened his bag of rockets, and didn't really worry about it. Then last Thursday, Daryl's money was stolen. As we went to bed, I noticed that Garry's cash box was empty, and there had been money in it the day before, I'd had to send one of students down to the store for butter, and I'd grabbed 50 grivna to pay for it. Garry wasn't sure, but there probably was a couple thousand grivna there. To top it off, his rockets were gone off the dresser.
Friday night Garry stayed home while I took the students shopping, so nothing happened, although he put out some questions about who might have taken the money. Two of the guys were out drunk on the street later that night, Max saw them and told them to go home.
Or maybe the candy was gone on Saturday. Saturday morning we left the village at 7:30 am, Garry was teaching a couple of English classes and I was going shopping. As an extra precaution, we locked our bedroom door and I took the keys. Both girls were home, and we found out later, were milking the cows that afternoon, and locked the door when they walked over to the barn. They hung the key in the hiding place that they and Garry had been using.
We got home about 2 pm, and discovered one of our male students standing outside the house. He was the one that Garry had let live at our house for a while this summer (and knew where the key was hidden). The door was wide open to the house, letting in flies trying to escape the cooler weather.
I carried in the new drying rack I'd bought, since Garry was going to investigate a rumor from one of the neighborhood kids that one of our students had been seen with a fat stack of cash at the store.
I noticed the girls' bedroom door was open, they usually keep it closed. I started pulling the plastic wrap off the drying rack, calling out, since I assumed one of the girls was home. I heard a noise, then the girls' door banged shut...
I knocked on the door, calling the girls names, something seemed wrong. No answer, the door was locked. Garry came in, with the student who'd been outside, I went looking for the key for the lock (not the same as our bedroom door, which was still locked, I checked in passing. As Garry tried a bunch of possible keys, I stepped outside and saw the girls window open. Our robber was gone. Garry and the other (helpful) student took off in the car to chase him down.
I opened our bedroom door and looked in my travel backpack, my other phone was gone. I'd used find my phone to lock it in the summer when I couldn't find it, so I looked on the phone in my pocket. The phone that had not been on in more than a week was on 16 minutes ago. Garry had just returned with a hundred dollars Canadian that they'd found in his wallet in his room. He went and caught him again, and he said the phone was back in the girls bedroom. He then found it under a rock on the side of the street.
The girls had returned from work at this point and did find some candy and cookies from our bedroom in their room, after our helpful student climbed in the window to unlock their bedroom door. A speaker and a battery pack to charge the phone reappeared, courtesy of some kids in the street. Garry promised them a finders fee if they could get the cash, too.
At this point, we knew one, most likely two of our guys had robbed our bedroom Saturday. They were the two had been drunk, so they had some money it seemed. One had Canadian money that had disappeared from my backpack at some point in last ten days. I also found a long forgotten key that used to up high in kitchen on the bottom shelf. I wonder how they/he opened the bedroom door...
I was missing a couple American twenties and ones. Luckily all my cards and passport were still there, and 40 Canadian. I'd been sure I'd had more, plus a little US in my wallet, but wasn't sure exactly when it had disappeared.
Maybe more of the new students were involved (the old ones are pretty loyal, as one said on Monday, when Garry and Victor talked to all the students about trust and forgiveness, I'm ashamed that one of us would do this, all you do here is give us stuff). Maybe the neighborhood kids were involved, they fenced some stuff back to us...
The student that got caught left on Tuesday, telling Garry it was all the helpful students idea, still claiming not to have stolen the money.
Thursday night we took the students shopping, locking the house, and apparently Garry turned off all the lights, too. I had taken my backpack, and phones, just in case.
When we got home, I was sure someone had been in our room, because my crocheting was on the floor and I set it on the dresser before leaving. Then I couldn't find anything missing, so I decided I was paranoid.
As Garry went to bed, he saw a cat in the bedroom. Not Needles, or Box. This cat had come through the wall. This summer we had a leak in our bedroom closet floor, that we thought was from the bathroom. In August, while I was gone, Garry took some walls apart and found the source, a pipe behind the bathroom, he opened up the wall behind the bathroom from the attic/cellar stairway in the shed attached to the house.
He also had cut open the drywall in the bedroom trying to find the leak. We first discovered a cat could get in our bedroom last week when Box appeared at two am peering over Garry's side of the bed.
So it seemed like one of the outdoor cats had gotten in while we were gone and knocked off my crocheting and some books.
Garry finally had time to work on closing up the wall Friday morning. Cats weren't the only thing getting in the bedroom. It was minus nine celcius last night, and a lot of cold air was coming in with the cats. The cat, I assume Fake Needles (he looks a lot like Needles), made another try to get in around one am, but I yelled and banged on my nightstand and the cat retreated.
Friday after school, while Garry was working on the wall, a different neighborhood kid showed up to talk to Garry, he said he saw someone come out of the house last night after he saw lights, and one of his classmates was spending lots of money on candy.
Garry phoned Max, who found our new suspect, who, after blaming it on the guy who left, finally confessed and said he'd handed the money off to his friend, who with encouragement from his mother, found the money. Including a little American money. They claim to not have a key, however, they look a lot like the kids who were at the door when we got home two weeks ago. We're getting new locks and keys.
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