Why the Neighbors are in Jail

There is a tan industrial sized garbage can with the number of the house painted on it with black spray paint, not stenciled and not artfully. The black paint has started to wear away, and the tan is coming through in the middle of the house numbers, although not in the sloppy drips that aren’t meant to be there.

Tonight, when I passed by the garbage can, I dragged it out to the curb. I figured it was ok because I knew it, and also I figured that the people in that house didn’t want to take their garbage can out to the curb because it’s 7 degrees out. I sure didn’t want to drag my garbage can out to the curb. It wasn’t so bad once I got into it though. I like to drag out the garbage cans for everyone who lives in the building, and then they always drag them back. So that’s nice. I got really bundled up and then I dragged them all out. Then I went to the store to get a cucumber and on the way back, I dragged out the tan garbage can because it’s on my list of things to remember.

As soon as I walked away, though, I worried that the people whose garbage can it was wouldn’t have wanted me to drag it out. I immediately began to concoct scenarios in which I may have caused major damage by doing it. The most plausible was one in which the people in that house were criminals who had some important evidence of a crime that they needed to get rid of and they were hiding it in the tan garbage can with the spray painted number until they could haul it off to the dump without it’s being connected to their home. They figured that would be a safe place to leave it. Who would move their garbage can? One of them thought it seemed to exposed, but his partner assured him “no one is going to drag out someone else’s garbage can.” 

Now they will go to jail.