I called Cadence saying, "Come on girl! Get 'em!"
I must have closed my cell phone at this point.
We bolted out the door together and I raced after these two kids only to discover that they were part of a group of 15 to 20 kids once we rounded the corner. When I left the front porch, they were already at the next corner to the north and running.
"You fuckers picked the wrong house!" I yelled as I gained on them. "I'm faster than each and every one of you and I AM going to catch at least one of you!"

At about 50 yards past the next corner (where the stop sign is,) I caught the slowest of the group. That was good enough for me even though I was sure that he wasn't one of the two that I saw closest to the house. I grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie and he yelled, "I didn't do it! It wasn't me!"
"I don't care. You were the slowest of the group, so you lose."
"But, I didn't do it! It was these other two kids!"
"I don't care. You were the slowest; you lose."

While I walked him back to the house, I called 911 because I didn't know what they had done to the house. They could have egged it. They could have thrown something at the door... I hadn't checked yet and given what I've dealt with - house wise - in the past 90 days, I wasn't messing around. On our way back to the house, a black Camaro pulled up with the window down and this stupid kid called out to them, "I didn't do anything! This guy won't let me go! Help!"
Little did he know that the guy in the car was my neighbor and he had witnessed the whole thing. In fact, he had taken off in his car to follow the pack of kids that I didn't catch! I told the kid to shut up and explained to the guy in the car that I had just caught them vandalizing my house and the police were on the way. We walked back and stood at the front walk waiting for the police while I grilled him about his name, where he lives and where he goes to school. I asked all about who the friends were and what they were doing in this neighborhood (they were from Old Orchard). I had him sit down in the back seat of my car because he looked like he was going to fall out. He was all in tears and worried about how much trouble he was in.

My phone beeped. I had a voicemail. It was Coach TD. He said, "Hey, I didn't hear what you said right before you hung up. Call me back RIGHT AWAY." - or something like that.

While we waited, I called him back and told him what had happened. He said that he was worried about what was going on, so he called 911 and asked them to send a squad car over to check things out.

After about 5 minutes of standing there grilling this kid about this and that, the neighbor came over and informed me that the rest of the posse was headed back my way.
"Good." I said.
"I think they have an adult with them, too."
"Good" - again.

Sure enough, 10 or so of the kids came back with one of the adults. Of course, the two kids who were guilty didn't return to the scene. The guy asked if I was holding a kid. I said that I was and that I would let him go when the police got there and took down his info. He replied with, "You called the police for ding-dong-ditch?" I explained that I hadn't yet determined that ding-dong-ditch was all that went on and that even if I hadn't called the police, Coach TD had. All the kids were real repentant and said they were sorry for disturbing me. And, I figured that I had let them sweat long enough, so I called back the 911 operator and canceled the police.

After that, I asked how many of the kids attended Jesu - the school attended by the kid I caught. All but one of them raised their hands. I displayed my disappointment and disgust at their behavior and told them that I expected more from Toledo Dioceses kids. I asked how many of them play sports and again all but one or two raised their hands. I inquired as to how they thought their coaches would feel about their behavior tonight and in unison they bowed their heads. It was almost comical.
"I'm a coach at St. Pats and I know if any of my kids acted this way, I'd be pissed." I said.
"What sport do you coach?" asked one of the bigger kids in the back of the group.
"Guess." I said. "I caught him and I could have caught any one of you guys if I wanted to."
"Cross Country!" said the same kid who asked the question.
"Bingo."
One of the kids even said that he ran cross country. I think he realized as he got about 1/2 way through the sentence that he probably shouldn't give me any more information than I already had.

I sent them on their way and went to get some dinner before doing my pre-race strength training.