The housebreaker had been casing the street for a couple of weeks.
Most of the houses were expensive, two-story properties with fronts set back from the road and large back gardens. It was something of a burglar’s paradise! He knew the old guy in number seventeen was a serious stamp collector. He would be his favourite target. With those, he would break them up and sell most of them individually. He could do very well out of that one house, probably more profitable than the rest of the street put together. There was a problem. Whereas most of the residents went out, leaving their house empty from time to time, number seventeen didn’t; only during the day, and that had occurred only once. He had to come up with a way of getting him out, even if it was for a short time.
An idea came to him. It was pretty outrageous, but he felt it may well work. He knew he could gain access to number seventeen’s back garden. That was how he’d go in, through the back. Across the road at number eighteen there would have to be a diversion; something of interest. His plan was to wait until eighteen was empty, then start a house fire. Most people would come out into their front gardens to see what was going on, whereas the old man would probably only stand at his front door to watch, but that would be enough.
Several nights later, his patience was rewarded when the family from number eighteen went out. This was his chance. It was all very new to him, so he would take it slowly step by step. He has the materials ready; an old scarf that he could feed through the letterbox and a bottle of petrol.
When the coast was clear, dressed in dark clothing, he crept along the front of the house, staying low. At the front door, he soaked one end of the scarf and lit it.
It was at that point that things began to go horribly wrong.
He dropped the flaming material when he tried to poke it through the door. It fell against the leg of his trousers, which immediately caught fire. While trying to put it out by slapping his leg, the sleeve of his jacket caught fire! Rolling around on the front lawn, screaming and trying franticly to put himself out, brought the next-door neighbour, the man from number sixteen out. Seeing the dilemma, he rushed back in to grab a blanket. When he came back out the man was screaming even louder, with parts of his clothing still burning. Throwing the blanket over him and patting all around the man on the ground, the flames were finally extinguished.
By this time, people were in their front gardens and out on the street investigating the terrible noise. Somebody must have called an ambulance. It had to make its way through the milling onlookers before reaching the house. The attending paramedic quickly saw that the burns were sufficiently bad to need immediate hospital treatment.
Limping badly and still in pain, he made his way to the ambulance, assisted by the paramedic. As he rounded the back of the ambulance, he could see the man from seventeen was standing on his front doorstep, watching.
That’s exactly where I wanted you, he thought.
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