After reading Curval's post about his bike being stolen, it reminded me of an incident that occured last year when I lived in Florida.
My wife returned home from grocery shopping and left the keys in the front door while she was putting the groceries away. When she went outside to get them, they were gone. I of course changed the locks on the house right away but didn't bother to re-key her car because of the expense. Four months went by, and the little bastages finally got around to stealing her car. My neighbor (who was a detective with the Sheriff's Department) saw them stealing it and gave chase. His wife came over and knocked on the door and told me what happened, and that her husband took off after one of the guys who was apparently the look out.
I saw him up the street with one of hoodlums firmly planted across the hood of his police car. As I was walking up to talk to him, the other goofs drove by in my wife's car (I'm assuming to pick up their lookout). Another police officer was already there and took off after my wife's car. Being a former police officer myself, I knew the punks were going to ditch the car nearby and run away on foot. Sure enough, they turned into the parking lot of the townhouses across the street and bailed out of the car, running.
I saw the driver run around the back of a townhouse and I met him as he came around the corner of the building. As he was running past me, I roundhouse punched him right between the peepers, breaking his nose.
The cop came around the corner shortly thereafter and cuffed the guy who I was holding on the ground. He told the cop that I beat him up "after he gave up". This was of course a lie, but I felt uneasy anyway given the amount of blood that was coming from his nose. The cop told him to stop whining, walked him back to his police car, and that's the last I heard of it.
So, I got my wife's car back with no damage, caught the guy who did it, and broke his nose. I felt pretty good about the whole thing.
Every once in a blue moon, justice is served. Go find your bike Curval!
