It's one of those things that's not covered at the police academy, and it won't be featured on the next episode of Cops, but it was a scenario that the Los GatosMonte Sereno Police Department was faced with last week—the case of the Los Gatos Great Pumpkin Caper.
It seems that a family on Massol Avenue had purchased 10 pumpkins to deliver to their 8-year-old son's school in time for Halloween. But before the third-graders ever had the chance to clean out and carve up the hollow gourds and transform them into jack-o-lanterns, they were plucked off the porch by perfidious pumpkin perpetrators.
The family reported the theft to the police, who knew they needed to squash this crime ring in a hurry given the season of the year. So they immediately issued an APB—that's right, an All Pumpkin Bulletin—to be on the lookout for the pumpkin perp. The suspect should be easy to spot—he'd be the one carrying 10 pumpkins. Description: round and orange. But officers should exercise extreme caution: suspect could be out of his gourd!
Still, while the thought of a great pumpkin caper in Los Gatos may seem somewhat light-hearted and humorous, the theft is very real for an 8-year-old boy whose personal home space was violated.
It's unfortunate that in a town like Los Gatos, where residents go above and beyond to decorate their homes for the holidays to make things special for youngsters, that someone—likely a group of young people—would spoil the fun for others through a thoughtless act of mischief.
Eight-year-old Devon will get over this event, and his parents will purchase additional pumpkins to deliver to is third-grade class. But the trouble is that the theft has stolen some of the fun from Devon's family this Halloween.
And while we may make light of the incident, the residents in the Almond Grove District will be just that much more cautious as they put out their decorations for the holidays, wondering "could our pumpkins be next?"
Streetscape relief
As the Halloween decorations come out for Friday's big day, it begs the question: Can Christmas be far behind?
The merchants in town know it, and they're making plans for what they hope will be a busy holiday shopping season. And the business owners in the downtown area received an early Christmas present last week when Mayor Sandy Decker and the Los Gatos Town Council announced plans stop work on the streets in the downtown for one year to give merchants some relief.
The streetscape project, which would have been suspended throughout the holiday season anyway, will now be delayed from March 2004 to March 2005 in an effort to allow merchants to return to business as usual for a while.
It's just another example of a caring, considerate council that puts the interests of residents and merchants ahead of those of the town government.
