“Welcome to the neighborhood….”
“…you’ve been robbed!”
That ominous greeting came from Dennis J, the first neighbor to greet us as we excitedly pulled up to the summer camp we had just closed on at the local bank.
Robbed?
Sure enough, the fully-furnished house we had mortgaged everything we owned to buy was missing most of its furnishings. Had the previous owner absconded with the stuff?
Nope.
It turned out that a certain family staying at a nearby cottage had decided to redecorate their house in Massachusetts with furniture and appliances from some of the summer places in Highland Haven, our small development along the shores of Highland Lake in Washington, NH. Evidently they had gone from house to house, picking out just the right things to make their home nice. Throwing those things in the back of a truck, they drove away.
Of course, we didn’t know that then. All we knew was that we were missing a solid maple dining room set, some beds, and a space heater. The police took all that information. It turns out we were lucky. Several neighbors lost brand new appliances and other items that were very costly to replace.
But it was that space heater of ours that broke the case.
Several months after the Highland Haven caper a house burned down in a certain Massachusetts town. Arson was suspected. Inside the smoldering frame, investigators found the charred remains of a space heater. And on one side of the device was a number etched into the metal. A Social Security number.
Turns out that Social Security number belonged to the previous owner of the cottage we’d bought at Highland Haven!
One thing led to another and before you knew it we were picking up our maple dining set and a few other things that had not perished in the fire.
What had started out as a very disappointing housewarming somehow became a very happy beginning to our life at Camp Singley.
“You’ve been robbed!” was truly transformed into a genuine, “Welcome to the neighborhood!”
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