Saturday afternoon, I was on my way home from work when I passed by my in-laws flooded neighborhood. While passing the entrance of their neighborhood, I noticed a truck with a trailer parked on the side of the road with its hazards on. On the trailer of the truck was a lawnmower that looked pretty familiar. I turned around and pulled up next to the guy and asked him if he was ok or needed any help. He told me that he was fine, but had to get some glass out of his shoe. I then pointed my attention to the lawn mower and the conversation went as follows:

Me: "Thats a nice lawnmower, where did you get that from?"
Him: "Its my uncles, he asked me to pick it up from his flooded house to get some work done on it."
Me: "Oh, ok".

My plan was to drive back to my inlaws flooded house and see if their ZTR lawnmower was there, but as I started to drive back there I noticed no license plate on the truck or trailer. Also, the guy started to drive off. When he started to drive off, I noticed that the lawnmower was not strapped down. Three strong signs that the lawnmower was my inlaws and they just stole it from their flooded house.

I turned around and started to chase after him. When I caught up to him, he pulled over and got out of his truck. This conversation went like this:

Him: "You got a problem with me? It seems like you are following me."
Me: "Yeah, I am following you and the problem is that is my lawnmower."
Him: "How do you know that it is yours, a contractor that is doing work on a house told me it is his and he asked me to pick it up for him cause he did not have time to get it."
Me: "Its my lawnmower, trust me"

At this time, his buddy got out of the truck and asked what was going on, and he was caught up on current events.

Him: "I can show you where I got it from if you want"
Me: "Sounds like a great idea."

Background on me, I used to work for the local sheriff's office, so I know a lot of the guys out there. On the way back to the house, I called the SO and told them I was going to stall them as long as possible at the house.

So, we get back to the house and sure enough, It came from my inlaws flooded house. After about five or so minutes of conversation between me and the two upstanding citizens, he finally backs his truck down the driveway and take the lawnmower off of the trailer. He tried to get in his truck and leave, but I told him that he had to put it back where he found it. He then opened the garage as if he had done it multiple times before and put the lawnmower just inside the garage. Him and his friend then went to get back in their truck, but I told them that he needed to put it back just like he found it which was in the back corner of the garage. He and his buddy then pushed it all the way back where it originally was and tried to leave again. With me still stalling, I told them they had to close the garage door which they did. They again started walking back to their truck, but at that time, I asked them to talk to a friend of mine which was a deputy that was pulling up at the perfect time.

These guys were arrested, and I got my inlaws lawnmower back which was a great way to end a workday.

These guys changed their story up at least 5 times during the whole event, and there were skid marks in the driveway.

Don't get any ideas, the lawnmower isnt' at the flooded house anymore.