It was a nice Sunday evening and the Tenney's had just finished their dinner. They decided that they should go outside and enjoy the nice weather of Herriman, Utah. They would usually do this on Sundays to spend time together and get some fresh air. Everybody in their family always enjoyed this tradition and none of the Tenney children could remember a week end when they didn't do this on Sunday night.  

When they went outside the kids opened the garage and got all of their things out like usual. The whole family did their favorite things outside and enjoyed the evening very much. When it was time to come into the house everybody put their things away, forgetting to shut the garage. After that it was time to go to bed. Once Thomas, the middle child had gone to bed in his room that he shared with his brothers, he started to review how his day had gone in his brain. When he got to the end of his day were he and his family played outside, he suddenly remembered that they had forgotten to shut the garage. 

Being a typical older lazy brother he asked his younger brother, "Joe will you shut the garage?" 

Joe responded, "Sure." 

Once that was resolved Thomas fell asleep faster than you can blink an eye. The day had been long and he probably could have fallen asleep on cement. What Thomas didn't know was that Joseph was just talking in his sleep when he had responded to him. 

That night a burglar named Craig patrolled all of Herriman to check for unlocked cars, open garages, and whatever else he could find that was valuable. When he reached the neighborhood Juniper Point, where Thomas' family lived, he saw the open garage. Cindy always left her wallet in the car so that when she went places it was already in the car for her. When Craig pulled up to the house he was jumping with excitement because it was a rare occasion when he found a house that had left their garage door open. He quietly got out of his car and crept up the driveway toward the cars. The home that the Tenney family lived in had a three car garage and they used each spot. Craig decided to try the white minivan first to see if was unlocked. That car was Cindy's car. He tried the door handle and to his surprise it was unlocked. He tried to be quiet as he got inside. After he looked around the car for a little bit and did not find anything he decided to check the compartment in the car. When he opened it up he saw a big blue wallet. He opened it and found four hundred dollars. He also found a debit card and a credit card. 

"Yes!" he whispered under his breath.

As he opened the door with great excitement because of what he had just found, he forgot how close Mark and Cindy's cars were together and hit Marks car with a loud bang. When this happened Thomas woke up from the loud noise. It made him kind of nervous so he went to his brother Joseph's bed and woke him up.

 "Joe. Wake up. I think I just heard something downstairs," he whispered. 

"Go back to bed!" Joe mumbled as if he didn't have a care in the world. 

Thomas realized that it was probably was just his imagination and went back to bed. Craig waited for a while and made sure that he didn't wake up anybody but decided that he should leave because someone might find him.

         When Thomas woke up the next morning he had a bad feeling but he didn’t know why. His stomach felt like it was constantly moving in 360s. He decided that it was probably just a morning stomach ache and got ready for school. Strangely though, the feeling stayed with him and he wondered what it was all about. When he went into the garage to get his backpack to leave for school, he noticed that the garage was open. He also noticed that his mom, Cindy’s car door was opened as well. He decided that he should look and see if anything was wrong. When he looked inside the car he was stunned by what he saw. There in front of him was a huge mess like the car had exploded over night.

“Mom!” Thomas yelled as he stared at the car.

  Cindy, the mom came running out of the house and into the garage thinking that something horrible had just happened. 

“What’s the matter?” Cindy asked as she looked around for the problem.

 Thomas showed his mom the huge mess that was in front of him. When she saw this she nearly screamed.

“I think that we were stolen from. After we came inside last night we left the garage open and I asked Joe to shut it but he must of not heard me,” Thomas explained to Cindy.

  “That's not good because I always leave my wallet in the car," Cindy said with a worried look on her face.

Thomas got into the car and searched all around for his mom's wallet but he could not find it. Cindy suggested that they should cancel the credit and debit cards so that whoever stole them could not spend any money on them. Thomas agreed and Cindy got on her phone and canceled her credit and debit cards at the bank. 

Once Cindy had done this they decided that they should have a talk with the family. Cindy called everyone to come down to the main floor to talk.

 "Last night our family left the garage door open," she began, "someone took advantage of it and robbed us." 

"I'm so sorry," everybody said like it was planned on que. 

"It's okay because we can use this experience as a learning opportunity," said Cindy. 

"I agree," answered Mark. 

Once this news was communicated to the family everybody continued to get ready for school. What the Tenney family didn't know was that Craig had just been caught by the Herriman city police. He had the wallet with him when he was searched and the police saw Cindy's license in the wallet. Just then the phone rang.

"I'll get it," said Mark in an annoyed voice.

"Hello," said the voice on the other side of the phone. 

"I'm calling from the Herriman police station. We were wondering if your family has happened to misplace a blue wallet with four hundred dollars in it and a debit and credit card in it as well?" asked the police officer.

"Yes! We have," said Mark so excited that the officer could barely hear him.

"Would you like to come and pick it up today?" the officer asked. 

"Yes. Thank you so much. I will come at four o'clock this afternoon," Mark was relieved that the money had been found. This turned out to be a good lesson for the Tenney's to have better communication skills and most importantly, close the garage at night.