the stroller story

Last week my sisters stroller was stolen off of her porch. The one that I had bought for her while I lived in Denver and flew it home with me on the airplane so that we could save a couple hundred dollars on a brand new one (me and the stroller go way back:). It had been a very good stroller and she loved it and planned on using it with all three of her babies come this October. Well, it was gone. And I was ticked! Who would steal from a pregnant lady with 2 kids..?! THE NERVE! I was so mad that I almost printed out reward posters to put all over the complex. Jenilyn told me that she was just going to face reality and get over it, and move on. It was gone.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I love KSL.com. I check the news nightly so that I feel like I know what is going on back home and I feel "connected". It has actually become a little bit of a problem. I started laying awake at night thinking about the poor families that have lost people and things they loved and I would start thinking about these things happening to me. There was one night I even had nightmares all night about a particular story I read, and I woke up in the middle of crazy dream in a total body sweat and practially in tears.

So Josh banned me. But not before I read this story.

I got thinking about how lucky they were to get what they had lost back! How cool is that? Whenever things of mine have been stolen (my purse in 2006) or lost I never see them again. So I checked Craigslist every couple days looking for Jenilyn's stroller and of course the crook was to smart to put it on there for sale. At least I thought so until I saw this posted:

So I called the ad. And Angela picked up and told me she had had the stroller for 3 years and that other than the wear on the right side of the handlebar, it was in GREAT condition. I told her perfect, that I wanted it, and that I would call her right back to set up a time to meet.

In the mean time I called the Aurora police, in Denver first on accident. Then here in IL to file a report. The cop was here at my house within 20 min and Jenilyn walked in 2 minuets later. We printed off pictures that I had of the stroller when we were in Chicago with the specific markings and set up to meed the crook at the mall (another reason I knew it was ours, she didnt want me to come to her house).

On the way over to the mall Jenilyn and I prayed hard that this guy (Angela's boyfriend) would hand over the stroller and that we would both be safe. I called 911 (the officer told me to when I got to the spot I was going to meet this guy at) and told them I was waiting in the Stake and Shake parking lot. The cop said he could see me and was watching from 200 ft away, and here came the white truck I was waiting for. I saw the stroller in the back when he pulled up and I WAS GETTING SO NERVOUS!

I waved him down pretending to be all sweet and friendly and he rolled his window down and said "are you the one that wants the stroller?" I cheerfully said yes and hopped out of my car and followed him to the back of his truck to check out the goods! Right then the cop pulled up and said to the man " I bet you are wondering why I am here" and proceeded to tell the boyfriend that this stroller he was trying to sell me was MINE!! And then they took him away for questioning and me the same.

(I told Jenilyn to take pictures from my phone while I took him out :) ha! oh and I had just come home from running so I was in my running clothes. Even more convincing that it was MY jogging stroller. They called Angela and asked her all kinds of questions and asked him all of the same ones. And both had completely different stories of how they got the stroller and how long they have owned it. Ha! I was beaming!

They hand cuffed him..


I was going to get it back! I was so glad that I was going to make Jenilyn's life a little easier. She had been stressed about finding in a new stroller and had been doing hours and hours of research to find one that met all of her needs, without it costing her another $500.

We drove home feeling like detectives.

We got it back.



I wish that I was a better at writing. The reason I tend not to write very much on my blog is because I am self conscious of it. Now you see why