Sorry, not-so-thief-y neighbor!

As some of you may recall, a few months ago Mike posted a very angry message to our unknown thief of a neighbor as his Facebook status. Mike had purchased me the Mario Kart game for Wii for my birthday. I was in Guatemala when the package was supposed to arrive. UPS said it came. It didn't. So, Mike called Amazon to report it as stolen. Amazon sent another package free-of-charge. UPS said it came. It didn't. (Sensing a trend?)


So, Mike called Amazon. He filed a second stolen report and then called UPS. Amazon agreed to mail him a third game, and UPS agreed to hold the package so Mike could pick it up. After theft report number two, Mike got rather enraged and posted his anger on Facebook. But, my birthday gift arrived on time, and all was right with the world. (And Peach on the standard bike DOMINATED Moo Moo Meadows!)


Then, Mike's computer crashed. HP sent him a box via UPS to safely mail in his crashed laptop. The EMPTY BOX never arrived. 


Who steals an empty box!??!!


We were convinced that we had some sort of bizarre thief in our neighborhood. So, we had all packages forwarded to me at work. Annoying, but no big deal.


Last week Mike's computer crashed again. (That's another frustrating part of the story!) In order to avoid someone stealing the empty box, we had it shipped to my work. As soon as I got home, Mike ran to the other side of town to drop off his laptop at UPS. 


Because Mike had to run all over town, we were running late to Bible Study. Just as we finished up dinner, someone rang our doorbell. (The last time someone rang our doorbell unannounced, I got yelled at for parking in someone's unofficial "spot," so needless to say the doorbell put us on edge.)


I answered the door and saw a man who introduced himself as our neighbor. In his hands were opened boxes from Amazon and one empty box from HP. 


Our address ends in 88. Our neighbor is in 68. Apparently, UPS can't tell the difference. 


Our neighbor explained that the packages arrived several months ago and he kept meaning to call Amazon to tell them there must be an error in their system. But, he forgot. Then, that day, his wife noticed that the packages were not addressed to them at all. He felt bad, so he brought them right over. 


We just stared at him.


You could see all the rage from Mike's previous assumption that someone was stealing from us well up in his face. We really were thankful (somewhere deep inside), but we looked evil. The presence of those boxes reminded us of every GPS-tracked-package plan, satellite surveillance device  and SWAT team strategy we had envisioned for dealing with our pillaging neighbors. 


I think our neighbor got scared because he handed me the packages quickly and scurried away. 


Mike and I just stared at each other. Then we stared at the boxes. Then one of us asked, "Ummm....so what do we do with three Mario Kart games?" haha. 


Don't worry, we returned them to Amazon. And, we're going to write a thank you letter to our neighbor. 


(Also, if you want to watch Peach kick some Toad butt, come over any time!)