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.

How terrible for your Aunt. It's a shame that teens just have no regard for others property. That a whole school picked on her is just awful. This saddens me.

Hugs to you both.
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That is truly a sad story. I feel completely awful for your Aunt and the trauma she went through. That's sickening .

I was surprised when she told me tonight. At first I was like, "wow, that's kind of weird..." and I thought it was funny (in an ironic way) for maybe two minutes, until I remembered how stressed my aunt was over it all.

Now I'm mad. From what my aunt told me, that girl seemed awful proud of what she and her brothers did until my cousin informed her that it was her house she was stealing from. I dont know how my cousin kept herself from going off on her. (maybe the fact that the girl is married to a friend of her husband's, and the girl is pregnant right now)

I did stupid stuff when I was a teenager too, but I never harassed a new widow by stealing things and vandalizing property. I'm not sure if it was the entire school that was doing this, but there were enough kids involved that I guess letters were sent home to parents about it, and the entire school was collectively warned to knock it off.

I hope the people who bought my aunt's house arent suffering from the same harassment. (the house was on a corner lot of a busy street, and was a bit prominent in the neighborhood...it was basically a ginormous deck with a house attached to it)

I am actually hoping tho, that when this girl talks to her brothers, that maybe they can tell what happened to some of the yard art. I doubt that my aunt will ever get it back, but I would at least like to know what they did with it.

I actually found a piece of rock ("small" piece of stone that weighed about 80-90 pounds and was in a shape that's extremely difficult to lift or move safely, that my aunt brought from her hometown...not a stone that's found in our area) in the yard of a house about 5 blocks from my aunt's house. She never did anything about it, but whoever had stolen it had placed it in the middle of their yard. It was obvious it was my aunt's stone. They'd broken it partially when they stole it, and I'd kept some of the pieces that chipped off. They matched the rock that was in that person's yard.

My aunt seems to attract morons who like to break and steal her stuff. A former neighbor who lived next door to where we live now, stole things out of my aunts garage, stole stuff from her backyard, broke cement yard art that was too heavy to move, and would also vandalize my aunt's flowers. Heck, she even allowed her dog to run loose, and that dog broke into my aunt's house TWICE and attacked her pug. (the pug ended up with nerve damage from the two attacks and slowly got worse and worse. She was put to "sleep" in March. I still want to go smack that woman for being an irresponsible dog owner)

That woman moved away (divorced her husband and packed up and left) but the scary thing now, is that woman has now remarried the ex, and has moved back in. I told my aunt to keep her doors locked and her garage door closed.

I dont know what it is about my aunt that she seems to attract whack jobs that will sneak around and steal things and vandalize property. My aunt seems to have really bad luck.

The complete disregard for another person's property and feelings is sickening. These kids were not taught to respect other people so how can we expect them to respect themselves enough not to do something like this.

I'm glad the mystery is solved (and yes, it sure is a small world) and I hope your Aunt at least has some closure with it. Nobody can steal her memories and, while it was a material thing, the yard art meant something to her and those kids should have known better than to bother it.