We live in a small, but growing, Texas town in a close-knit neighborhood. There is an active Facebook page for all of us neighbors to discuss what’s going on around the neighborhood, share about good/bad experiences from local businesses, offer advice, and even sell items.

We all look out for one another and very rarely does anyone get into an argument. It’s community most of us feel safe in (besides cars driving too fast down our through street), and in the four years we’ve been here, very rarely have there been any issues with crime. Until now.

Just in the past two weeks, our neighbors have had their cars broken in to with some being vandalized. One of them even had their car stolen and it was found several hours later in another town and on fire!

Not cool, not cool at all. I guess that’s obvious though, because fire is HOT! Wrong time for jokes?

After the line of break-ins so many neighbors have experienced, we’re all on high alert trying to identify the mysterious criminal or criminals. We are thinking its the same offender as several neighbors have cameras that have caught the perpetrator’s SUV on video.

But it’s definitely not enough for anyone to make a break in the case. At least not that I’m aware of. One camera caught the guy in action, but again, it doesn’t leave much for us to go off of.

We’re not giving up, and the fact that we’re all in close communications with each other and want to help, I am confident we’ll get the guy soon. At least I hope that’s the case.

We always complain because we live on the through street in our neighborhood and are always yelling at speeders as they drive by. It sucks because we want Avery to be able to safely play in the front yard, but there are too many cars speeding around to do so. One benefit, though, is this seems to keep the idiots from attempting to break in anyone’s car on the busy street. Silver lining?

As if the sudden crime wave wasn’t enough, our kind neighbors that have had six chickens at one time are now down to one. Avery and I would go on walks and she was always excited to see and pet the chickens.

Our neighbors are so generous and always gave us eggs they collected asking nothing in return. But one by one, the chickens have been found mangled inside the coop with no evidence of who or what is to blame. I was thinking “fowl” play, but the way the chickens are being attacked from within the tight quarters of their coop, I wouldn’t think a person could be to blame.

Maybe a raccoon or opossum? Anyone know if those are capable of causing such a murderous act? We had come to like the chickens, especially the grey one, Rose, and white one, Elsa. I could never remember the black chicken’s names, but they were sweet too.

Our neighbors were out of town for Memorial Day and said I could come over to help myself to any eggs they laid. Instead, I came over to find one chicken mangled one day, and then another the next. I felt so bad for the poor chickens and our neighbors. I cleaned out the carcasses since it was trash day and didn’t want such nice people to get back and have to deal with it.

So, we have two mysteries to solve in our neighborhood. I don’t know your stance on gun ownership, but I believe guns don’t kill people, people kill people, and I proudly (but safely) have several to keep our family safe. When things like this are happening so close, I prefer to take no chances.

Have you ever dealt with crime in your neighborhood?

Do you know what kind of animals that can fit and climb into a chicken coop would kill chickens without really eating them?