Lock your doors! Shutter your windows!

About once a month we receive an email update from our neighborhood association. They usually consist of upcoming events such as a Ladies Brunch or Mayoral Candidate's Forum, but the most recent one was titled "Crime Threat" and this is what it said.

"The "GYPSIES" are back! If you don't know who the Gypsies are, they are a group of thieves that travel to various states in the U.S. and enter homes through unlocked doors and steal jewelry and silver and immediately FEDX the stolen goods to New York City."

Now I don't know about you but this conjures up all kinds of images for me. I immediately picture a roving band of dark haired, hippie-clothes-wearing people wondering the streets of our neighborhood in their covered wagon peddling herbal remedies for your ailments, reading your palm and possibly kidnapping your youngest child.

But the email goes on to say,"A woman described as having dark hair, dark complexion, with high cheek bones, wearing a jogging-type suit will enter the home and attempt to remove jewelry or silverware. If confronted by the homeowner, the suspect will say they are looking for their dog."
their dog."

This starts out with the first image that came to my mind, but I guess a modern day gypsy has traded in the flowing skirts, tops, and headscarf for a jogging suit. Even gypsies have to get with the times.

These gypsies apparently think that my neighborhood is comprised of fools. To tell someone who has just cornered them in their home that they are looking for a lost dog. How does a lost dog get inside your home? And what about all those jewels and silverware that resembles your things or the bulging bag on their shoulder. That doesn't raise suspicion?

The email ends with this note: "The Gypsies usually work in groups of two or three. A male will drive a small rental car through the neighborhood while at least one female will walk through the neighborhood casing homes."

Hmmm well I guess a covered wagon, would draw a lot more attention than a rental car. I am not that worried about us getting a visit from these bandits. We have absolutely no silverware and the only jewelry of any value is my wedding ring which is always on my finger. But I wouldn't mind getting a glimpse of these modern day Gypsies. Apparently, fortune-telling wasn't paying the bills.