The mystery continues...

Look.





They've been returned.

Or maybe they've never actually gone missing.

This is possible. I'm not known for being the most observant human on the planet.

Actually, I surprised myself a bit by noticing the gates were gone in the first place.

So, let's ponder what's happened here.

FACT: On Thursday July 2, Lynn notices that Cornwell gates are no longer attached to Cornwell posts where they'd been standing on Cornwell land for 6 years.

FACT: On Sunday July 5, Lynn has lunch with neighbors Augusto and Lina and mentions the "missing gates".

FACT: On same Sunday, at same lunch, Lynn asks Augusto if she should try to retrieve her gates by "asking around" the other neighbors. Augusto replies, "No. That shit's gone." (that, of course being my translation of what he said.)

FACT: Augusto and I were in agreement that there's only one suspect (and NO, it wasn't the neighbor I argued with about the water and the tubes, we both had a different gentleman in mind)

FACT: On Thursday July 9, Lynn notices that the gates are propped up against the walls on Cornwell land. Actually, only the bottom half.

FACT: On same Thursday, Lynn walks the Cornwell land looking for clues but can not get far because of 4 foot tall grass and brambles.

Now...what could have happened?

There are two possibilities as I see it:
A. They were stolen and returned.
B. They were never stolen, just taken off their posts and set aside.

Ok, so, if they were (A.) stolen and returned I can only see three explanations for this:
1. Word got around that I was blabbing my mouth about my gates being stolen to Augusto (who is respected by more neighbors than just myself) and the thief didn't want to have "brutta figura" (lose face) with Augusto so he returned them. Possible, not probable but possible.

2. The thief was not a thief at all, merely a borrower. In this scenario, he just had a little project for which he needed a couple of gates for a few days, noticed that we had just the right gates AND that we weren't using them. So he borrowed them and brought them back when he finished. Possible, not freakin' likely but possible.

3. The thief had had his eye on our lovely gates for years, after watching and waiting and being ever so patient for (as I said) years and finally convinced that we were never going to use them - he nicked them. He had them in his shed on his land for a week, spending hours every day cleaning them and admiring them and loving them. And spending hours every night awake in bed, in a cold sweat, completely remorseful that he'd taken those beautiful gates from his really kind American neighbors. After 7 nights of this, he couldn't take it any more and brought them back. Possible...no, this is not possible at all.

Since these explanations all failed, it's very possible the gates were never stolen. So let's look at (B.) in which the gates have been there the whole time, just not in the place where I left them.

There's only one explanation I can think of for this:

Since the gates were attached here,



like this,



and only the top half went up and down (which are still missing - piss me off), one actually had to go OVER the gate to get on our land.

Soooo...

Someone wanted to get something (or someone) on my land that can't lift a leg over the gate.
hmmmmmm....

Now we're getting somewhere...the mystery continues.

While my brain ponders this, my hands will ponder this: