January 5

After talking to Ron and I, Tom decided that the most likely suspects are two other guys in the neighborhood..Darrell and Chris.

I've done everything I can to encourage that idea including offer Tom some assistance to "get back that them"

Additionally, since I am a little concerned about Tom's wife calling the police or at least being distressed about the deer actually being stolen i figured that I should send some message letting them both know that this is indeed a prank.

It took me a day or so to come up with a way to let them know, to not give away any clues as to who I am, and to further cast suspicion on the Darrell and Chris. As I mentioned before, the solution to this problem was to leave them a note LUKE 15:13, the story of the prodigal son.

Well the same day that they found that note, I was beset with some unforeseen good luck. Chris' teenage son took it upon himself to glom onto this incident and called up and left a message on Tom's answering machine. In a disguised voice he said, " If you ever want to see Little Rudy again, get $100 in unmarked singles and away further instructions". Of course Ton just used called ID and identified the call as coming from Chris' house.

Two night later Tom and his son got together flashlights, a floodlight, and a karaoke machine and snuck over to Chris Gibbon's house. They parked at the end of the driveway, put the car in neutral and pushed it up to the house. They snuck around and no one was home except Chris who was sitting in the living room quietly watching TV. Tom cranked up the PA system and started beeping the horn, " WE HAVE THE PLACE SURROUNDED<,COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP !!! " With that, his son started shining flashlights in the widows of the house. Chris ran to the front door and threw it open.

Tom said to me, " Even if I never get this deer back, the sight of Gibbons shitting his pants when flipped the floodlight on him makes it all totally worth it."

As it stands now, between the call and the bible passage ( which Tom predictably assigned to Darrell's religious wife) Tom is convinced that those two did it. And he's getting increasingly irritated that they're dragging the joke on this long.

My plan it to try and buy a replacement deer and plant it in Darrell's garage tonight. I'll keep you posted.