Our house has its hero of the day!!

How often does it happen that bad things occur twice and within a short timeframe? Was it only about a week ago that I wrote about my bike and how it was brutally separated from its saddle? And guess what happened today....

We were out enjoying the Fontainebleau Chateau gardens. At our house at the other side of Fontainebleau, housemate Anita was doing her homework when she heard noise coming from downstairs. She went to see what was going on and as she stepped into the garden, two guys came cycling out of the garage onto the street... on our bikes!!! She went after them and managed to stop one of them. Unfortunately, he fell and so did the bike. She started yelling at them and made so much impression that the guy (who was actually a boy of around 14 years old) returned the bike, and so did his friend. Anita brought both bikes inside the house while other housemate Wim talked to the little thieves.

Omar was called by Anita at the time she saw the guys in the garden and he arrived when the bikes were safe inside the house, almost running over one of the little criminals with his car. They took their pictures and wrote down their names. If they or their friends come near our house again, their pictures go to the police. So far the little punks were happy that they weren't turned in or beaten up (yet.)

To end with a summary:

*We are very happy that we have our bikes back, even with their minor damage (scratches, ruptured tire, etc)
*These boys were definitely out to steal them and not to borrow them for a nice ride (my bike was locked without a saddle, so it must have hurt pretty badly)
*We are surprised that this happened in Fontainebleau. It looks like the children here do not get enough homework.
*Thanks to Anita we still have our two bikes, so we hereby declare Anita: our hero of the day!!