Local color in the mountains of Ocean Grove—Mount Zion Way.   It is a charming neighborhood.  The sort of place where everyone usually  knows your name. Paul Goldfinger photograph. ©

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net

It was a night-time robber who entered an unlocked car on Mt. Carmel Way,  July 26,  to steal about $500.00 worth of expensive gardening equipment. The owner of the vehicle has lived in OG  “for 13 years without incident, so I was lulled into a casual attitude about locking up.”  This was especially painful for her because she had just replaced the tools lost in a fire at her other home.

The owner, let’s call her Pegi, said, in a fantasy, addressing the thief, “I can’t imagine you would use these tools. I assume you will sell them. For what, $20.00?   For drugs? Alcohol? The police have been notified. The chances of catching you are slim.”

“A friend of mine was quite clear that he believes in Karma. I will count my blessings that no one got hurt; that everything you took is replaceable.”

“I will be sure to lock my car every time now.  And I will hope that Karma gets you.”

Editor’s Note:  Ocean Grove thieves are traditionally the types that are looking for something to sell in order to get drugs.  They do walk around town looking into car windows to find targets.  Or they typically break into homes at ground-floor level.

They are not likely to be the types who need cash to see a foreign film at the Showroom Cinema or to order an espresso with a cranberry scone at Café Volan on Mattison.

An interesting postscript to this crime report is that Pegi was walking to downtown Asbury Park and she noticed one of her gardening gloves on the ground.  She said, “The glove had been in my car. The miscreant probably dropped it while making his escape.”  She also noted that “living on the main thoroughfare to A. Park has a lot of people walking by.”

The irony is that, if life imitates art, Pegi’s glove would yield DNA and the perp would be arrested hours later while tending his glorious garden in A. Park.

It reminds me of when two teenage girls from A. Park were peddling their bikes down Delaware, near the bridge.   They stopped at my neighbor’s house  (not noticing me on my porch.)  They saw something on his porch, so one of them walked up the stairs and picked up a hand pruner that was lying there. As she walked with it back to her bike, I said, “Hey. What are you doing?”

She said, “I need this for my bike.”

I said, “Put it back,” and she did.  Then they peddled away, unembarrassed or apologetic.

I still can’t envision that kid tending a garden.  Maybe she did think it would be good for her bike.  But she had to be stopped.  In the end, calling her to task was a good thing, and it also reminds me that Neptune Township all too often fails to enforce small-time  crimes in the Grove, and that’s not a good thing.

BEVERLY KENNEY