Our son very nearly had a surpise “party favor” at our backyard celebration of his 5th birthday: a handgun that a criminal stashed in our yard an hour before our little guests were to arrive.
We were readying our house for the party when our neighbor knocked at our door. A moment before, she had been mowing her lawn when a young man vaulted over a fence into her backyard, leaped over her lawn mower, and jumped another fence into our yard!
A moment later a police officer, in hot pursuit of the teenager, did the same.
Alarmed, we went out to our backyard to make sure none of the party decorations had been disturbed by this foot chase. My sharp-eyed wife noticed that, next to our shed, our compost container had been moved slightly.
When we lifted it, we found a gun lying in the grass beneath it. It was a .38 automatic. It was loaded and the safety was off.
The fleeing teenager had paused long enough to ditch his gun, then jumped our fence and continued running.
We called the police and they came and got the gun.
End of story, right? Not so fast.
The next day, another member of the boy’s street gang knocked on our front door. A friend of his had left a gun in our backyard. Did we happen to find it? Could he have it back?
Um, yes, we did, my wife told him. And sure, he could get it back, but he’d have to ask the police for it. He left disappointed.
Today is our son’s 25th birthday. We love you, JD! Celebrate safely and look out for fugitives.