Is it a crime to recycle trash on someone else’s property? What would make a person want to wander around in slippers at 5:15 in the morning, carrying a bunch of old newspapers through the dark streets? Is there something sinister about this? It had nothing to do with my job, but if I wanted answers to these questions, I needed to get up extra early. Normally I could have slept for two more hours. Well, that is what happens if you try to be a detective. For weeks I was obsessed with catching the person who was taking the morning newspaper out of the mailbox and replacing it with an old one. I interrogated the paperboy, but he was indeed innocent – no evidence of wrongdoing. So I decided that a stakeout was the only solution. Early one morning I hid in the tree house built by the Rosenfeld kids across the street. Of course I told their Dad, Jeremy Rosenfeld, about my plan. At exactly 5:00 a.m. I was on duty as the paperboy arrived on his bike and shoved the newspaper into the mailbox slot. He moved on and all was quiet. Not a soul in sight. Until 5:15.

Slowly a dark figure emerged from the shadows, past the neighbor’s house, and headed straight for my mailbox, looking right and left to make sure nobody was watching. Zick! Zack! That was it! Caught in the act, I thought. However, as I hurried down the rope ladder, my feet got all tangled up and I was soon upside down, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Of course, the mysterious figure with the newspaper had vanished. Boy, I was sure glad that Jeremy Rosenfeld takes his dog for a walk every morning at 5:45 …. I just hate hanging around, you know.