I am totally gobsmacked right now.

A mystery about some yard art that was stolen out of my aunt's yard has nearly been solved.

My cousin just became friends (maybe not friends?) with a girl who went to my high school. Turns out that this girl and her brothers were the people responsible for stealing at least one piece of yard art out of my aunt's front yard.

My cousin was talking to this girl, and when she found out where the girl had gone to school, she was going to tell the girl where she used to live. (2 blocks from the school) and started to ask the girl if she knew where this house was, but when describing the house, the girl got all excited (and this was before she knew it was my cousin's house) that that house was the "school name" house.

Apparently my aunt's house was a target of the kids at my old high school. They would challenge each other to steal things out of the yard. This was probably about 9 or 10yrs after I attended the same school and the harassment lasted from probably 98 or 99 into the year 2002.

These kids had my aunt so freaked out. Things would disappear from her yard constantly, or someone would smash the mailbox or break something. This was just after my aunt was widowed. She was really scared that someone was going to break into her house someday. It was basically harassment.

My cousin, eventually told this girl that it was her mom's house they'd stolen things from. It sounds like the girl was appropriately mortified. The item that they'd stolen (large, heavy piece of cement yard art) was of deep sentimental value. My uncle had bought it for her just before he died. There were other pieces that had disappeared that also had a lot of meaning to my aunt. (yes, leaving cement yard art in your yard comes with a risk of having it stolen, but when it cant be moved by anything less than 3 people, you tend to think it'll be somewhat safe)

The girl told my cousin that her brothers and her had gotten into serious trouble with both their parents AND the school. Her brothers supposedly returned the piece that they'd stolen. Only thing was, that nothing was ever returned.

My aunt is really depressed now, even tho she knows who stole from her. I guess she doesnt (and I dont either) understand why these stupid kids would harass her like that. I think finding this out yesterday brought up memories of my uncle giving her those pieces, and probably reminded her of him dying.

I dont think the girl, her brothers and all the little morons who were participating in the harassment ever realized just how badly they affected my aunt. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons my aunt decided to move was because they were freaking her out.

I was at her house one day, just before she decided to move. She had some terra cotta art on the front of her house. A few minutes after I came into the house, my aunt's dog started to bark like crazy. We went outside to see what the dog was going on about, and it took us probably a minute or two to realize that the terra cotta stuff was gone. I think that was the last straw.

At least karma probably happened quickly in the terra cotta theft. There was a HUGE beehive on the back side of both pieces that were stolen. I'm sure those kids got stung...hopefully multiple times.

When my aunt decided to move out of that neighborhood, my dad decided to move us too (we lived just around the corner, we were having theft problems too, now we live across the street from each other)

I just cant believe that the world is really that small...that my cousin would meet someone (living in another city) who went to the high school down the street from her, (my cousin went to a different high school) who had stolen from her mom years back.

I dont know if my cousin is going to continue to be that girl's friend (I wouldnt) but at least part of the mystery is solved. We at least know one of the reasons why it was happening so much.

I know that if I meet this girl, I'm going to not be very nice to her. (there could be a little bit of swearing involved if I meet her)

Teenagers like that should not be allowed out without an escort. These kids have no idea what kind of emotional damage that they did. It's just really surprising to find out about it now.