Published: 21 May 2026

Chapter 30 – The Stakeout

When we went on stakeout again the following night, I hadn’t been on duty very long when I saw a bus pulling onto the campus and it parked near one of the athletic facilities. That set off alarm bells in my mind, because there were many expensive items at that location which would definitely attract a group of thieves. I flew closer and landed on a nearby building so I could get a better look, because I was thinking the thieves might be using a bus this time. If they were, this could mean they were planning on making a much bigger haul than they had over the Thanksgiving break.

When the door of the bus opened and people started getting off, I realized my over active mind had blown things out of proportion and it was one of the sports teams returning after a game. Since CSU was in the Mountain West Conference, I knew the teams had to fly to all of their away games, unless it was a non-conference game against the University of Colorado. So, when they returned, they would use a bus to transport the team from the airport to the campus.

As I was watching the team members and their coaches unload, I thought about something else, which had nothing to do with the current situation. I suddenly wondered if any of the international students had opted to stay on campus during the winter break instead of returning home. If they had, then neither Devin nor I had seen any of them throughout the previous night, so if some of those students had remained on campus, then they must be staying in their dorms after dark and not going anywhere.

This incident marked the extent of the activity I observed on campus that night, so as dawn prepared to break, I flew over to the roof of the dining hall where Devin and I usually ate to see if he was there. He had arrived before me this time, and as soon as he saw me, he took flight and headed in the direction of the house. As I followed suit, I felt he must be starving, because he certainly wasn’t wasting any time getting there.

He’d already landed by the time I arrived and was waddling toward the back door, still as a Great Horned owl. As soon as my owl feet touched the ground, I quickly waddled after him. As soon as Devin reached the back door, he transitioned, and then retrieved the key, unlocked the door, and went inside before I got there. I quickly transitioned as well and entered the house, and I saw Devin pulling a frying pan out of the cupboard. I knew this meant my hunch about him being extremely hungry was obviously correct, since he was already getting things out to fix a meal.

“All that flying back and forth not only tired me out,” he said to explain his actions, “but it made me very hungry as well, so I’ll use six eggs to make scrambled eggs for us this morning. If you don’t mind, you can get the bagels and start popping them in the toaster.”

“Aren’t you going to get dressed first, before you do this?”

“No, I’m too hungry to delay filling my stomach by taking time to get dressed right now, and I’m so tired that I just want to eat as quickly as I can, so I can head up to bed.”

I readily acknowledged that he had a longer distance to fly between the two locations that he was covering, so I didn’t argue with him. Instead, I did as he’d requested and put two bagels in the four-slice toaster that had extra wide slots for toasting bagels.

“I heard a bus or truck with a diesel engine over on your side of the campus earlier, but I didn’t bother to fly over to check it out. So, did something happen?”

“Yes, it appeared that the men’s basketball team was returning from an away game.”

“Ok, and I’m glad it didn’t have anything to do with the thieves. I probably should have flown over to check it out, but I was afraid that as soon as I left, the thieves would show up and strike in my area while I was gone.”

“It was ok and probably the correct decision, because everything was fine. If it was something that I couldn’t handle, then I would’ve flown over to your area and got your attention so you could have followed me back there.”

“Wouldn’t you have been worried that the thieves might have left by the time you did that and returned?”

“It wouldn’t take that long to fly over and let you know that you should follow me, so it would have been fine. Besides, if they arrived in a bus, it would have indicated that they were planning on filling it up with the various items they were after, and that would’ve taken them a while.”

“Good point.”

Right after the bagels popped up, Devin said the scrambled eggs were ready and started divvying them up on the plates where I’d placed the bagels. While he was doing that, I got the cream cheese and orange juice out of the fridge and we sat down at the kitchen counter to eat.

He was so busy shoving food into his mouth to soothe his voracious appetite that he wasn’t talking, so I spoke instead. “I wondered about something earlier and was curious if any of the international students had stayed on campus during the break.”

He merely shrugged his shoulders to indicate that he didn’t know, and it also informed me that he wasn’t willing to take even long enough to say “I don’t know” to answer my question. Therefore, since I didn’t want to carry on a soliloquy, I didn’t ask any more questions or make any additional comments.

Seeing he’d been stuffing his mouth and eating as quickly as was humanly possible, he finished long before I did, and then he placed his glass, plate, and fork in the sink.

“I’m going up to bed and you can join me when you’re ready, but I’m too exhausted to wait for you,” he said just before he disappeared from sight and headed for the stairs.

“Ok, I’ll be up in a few,” I replied in his wake, and then I took my time and enjoyed my breakfast.

When I finished eating, I put the milk, eggs, cream cheese, and orange juice back in the fridge. After that, I quickly washed the dishes we’d used before going up to bed. Devin was already asleep by the time I finished brushing my teeth, so I merely climbed into bed and cuddled with him as I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up before my alarm went off, so I grabbed my phone to see what time it was. I figured we still had a while before we had to drive over to Dominick’s to eat, so I let Devin sleep while I took my shower and used mouthwash to take care of my morning breath. When I finished, I decided it was time for me to rouse Devin.

“Come on, sweetie. Time to wake up and get ready to head out to get something to eat. I’ve already showered and dressed, so I’ll go downstairs and make a pot of coffee. I think we can both use a little caffeine to get our engines started and we have enough time to have a cup before we leave for Dominick’s, as long as you shower and get dressed quickly.”

“Ok, I’ll see you downstairs.”

The coffee was ready before he came down to join me, so I was sipping a cup as he walked into the kitchen. I quickly got up and poured him a cup as well. “Here you go, sweetie.”

“Thanks, hun,” he responded as he took the cup from me. “I wonder if we’re going to spend the entire week with nothing to show for our effort.”

“I suppose it’s possible, since the other groups didn’t see the thieves while they were on stakeout and we were home spending time with our families.”

“Yeah, you might be right, but I hate to think that we’ve been wasting our time if the thieves don’t show up.”

“I know, but I don’t think we could’ve taken the chance that they might not strike again during this break.”

“Yeah, because if they did, then we’d feel terrible that we allowed it to happen.”

As soon as we’d finished our coffee, we went outside, got in the SUV, and then Devin drove us over to Dominick’s to eat.

“Your table is ready,” the maître ‘d greeted us, “and there’s another couple in the dining room, so you won’t be alone.”

“Good, because we were beginning to feel like a couple of retirees going out to enjoy the early bird specials.”

“It’s ironic that you put it that way,” he said as he led us to our table.

It didn’t take long before we realized why he’d responded that way, because shortly after we entered the dining room, we passed an elderly couple enjoying their meal. We merely nodded and smiled at them as we passed by. As soon as we were seated, a server, who was in his late twenties and had waited on us before, hustled over to see if we wanted to order a cocktail before we ate.

“No, we’ll just have coffee,” Devin responded after looking in my direction and noticing that I was shaking my head slightly.

“Very good,” he responded, and then he walked away. When he returned and was pouring the coffee from a thermal carafe into our cups, he made a comment. “I’m glad you were seated at one of my tables, instead of that other couple.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“That other couple never leaves very good tips.”

“They’re probably on a fixed income and only have a limited amount of money to live on for the month.”

“Then why do they always eat here, instead of at one of the less expensive places?”

“It might be because the food here is much better,” Devin offered.

“But they’re always dressed fairly nice and don’t look like people who are pinching pennies.”

“Maybe they’ve had those clothes for a long time and they’re not something that they’d just purchased. It’s possible their situation has changed recently, such as incurring mounting medical bills, and now they’re afraid of being unable to pay for treatments or prescriptions.”

“I guess that’s possible, but they’ve been coming here for years and they’ve always been lousy tippers, but it’s gotten worse lately.”

“Then that might suggest that they’ve always been frugal, but they’ve recently incurred other bills that you aren’t aware of and that’s why their tips have gotten worse. You never know, unless you walk a mile in their shoes.”

“I wish they’d walk a mile in our shoes, because every server here has to survive on our tips because we’re either going to college or have a family to support.”

“Yes, it does work both ways,” I agreed, and then we ordered.

“At least he’ll get a good tip today,” Devin stated with a smirk after our server walked away.

“Yes, and maybe we could afford to leave a little extra tonight. After all, we’re going to be making a killing on the coins and other things we found in the cave, along with what we make on the baseball cards. Make it 35%, since Gramps and Pops always tell us to leave a 30% tip.”

“Ok, but you’re the mathematician, so I’ll let you figure out how much we should leave and I’ll just add it to the receipt.”

“Do you want me to add it up for you as well?” I replied sarcastically. “You’re going to be an engineer and supposed to have pretty good math skills yourself, so you should be able to figure out how much to leave for a tip.” He just looked at me and smirked, but didn’t reply.

When we finished eating, I quickly figured out how much of a tip we should leave and told Devin the amount, and then he added it to his debit card receipt before signing it. After we left there, we went back to the house and had time for one more cup of coffee before we had to brush our teeth, get undressed, and head over to the areas of the campus that we were staking out.

“I had a good sleep,” Devin stated as we were drinking the coffee, “but I think I still need the extra caffeine to stay awake. Flying around from dusk ‘til dawn is almost like running a marathon, so the extra caffeine helps to keep me awake. There were a few times last night that I wanted to just land in a tree and go to sleep for a while, so this will definitely help.”

“Yes, it certainly will,” I agreed.

As soon as we finished that cup of coffee, we ran upstairs to brush our teeth, and then we got undressed and headed out the back door. After Devin locked it and hid the key, we flew to the campus, and as soon as we arrived there, we split up and went to our designated areas to watch for any suspicious activity.

The only thing I noticed when I first arrived was that some of the athletes were going in and out of the dorms for the first few hours, but that stopped well before midnight, since they probably had curfews. The rest of the night was very quiet, and when the sun was struggling to break through the gloom, I flew over to the roof of the dining hall to meet up with Devin. He wasn’t there when I arrived, so I waited for him to show up, but he still hadn’t returned as the sunlight completely flooded the area,

This made me wonder if something had happened that kept him in one of his areas, so I began debating whether I should fly over there to find out what was holding him up. I was just about to take flight when I heard the familiar beating of his wings, and when he didn’t land right away and merely circled overhead, I was thinking it was a sign that he wanted me to followed him. I wasn’t sure if we’d be flying back to the house or somewhere else, but I prepared to go wherever he led me.

It didn’t take long before I realized that he was merely heading back to the house, and as soon as he landed and entered the house, I asked Devin a question.

“Why were you late in getting back to the dining hall this morning?”

“Just as I was getting ready to head there, I noticed some activity just off campus and I wondered if it had anything to do with the thieves. Being curious, I decided to watch the group for a while, but it turned out to be a group of locals that were meeting up so they could go someplace together. I’m not sure where they were heading, but it wasn’t on campus, so I just forgot about them and headed over here.”

“Ok, I was just a little worried.”

“I understand, but I didn’t want to leave there until I was fairly certain they weren’t the thieves. Now, what do you think about just getting something to eat from a fast-food place this morning.”

“Ok, that’s fine with me.”

“How about Chick-fil-A?”

“Hell no. They’re a bunch of Bible thumping homophobes. How about Wendy’s instead.”

“Yeah, ok, so let’s get dressed.”

“I’ll get dressed, but can you get the food and bring it back here? There’s something I want to do before we go to sleep.”

“What are you up to, and what do you want to eat?”

“I’ll tell you what I’m up to when you get back, but get me a Baconator and French toast sticks.”

“Ok, I’m going to get a couple of bacon Breakfast burritos, seasoned potatoes, and a Cinnabon pull-apart. Do you want one of those as well?”

“Yeah, a Cinnabon sounds good,” I agreed, and Devin went to get dressed before heading out to get the food.

I got dressed as well, and once he left, I got out my laptop and sat down at the kitchen counter to see what athletic activities might be taking place on campus for the rest of the week. I finished up my search before Devin returned, so I poured us each a large glass of orange juice to go with our breakfast. Now, I just had to wait for him to return.

I heard him open the door a few minutes later, and I took the bag from him so he could take off his coat, and then I separated our orders and placed them next to our drinks. Once that had been taken care of, I waited for him to join me.

“Did you finish up whatever it was that you stayed here to do?” he asked as we were unwrapping our food and spreading it out.

“Yes, I wanted to see if any CSU teams had home or away games during the rest of the week,” I responded while also unwrapping my food.

“What did you discover?” he followed, but I’d already started eating, so I hesitated until my mouth was empty before I answered him. He was shoving food into his mouth as I replied.

“I learned that the men’s basketball team has a game at Boise State on Friday and both the men’s and women’s indoor track teams have a meet at the University of Colorado on Friday and Saturday. The women’s basketball team has a home game on Saturday afternoon, but I’m not sure how many spectators will be showing up to watch the game or how many other students will be returning on Saturday.”

“I’m glad you checked all that out, but I have an idea that you’re seeing something I’m missing.”

“Yeah, because so far the only students we’ve seen that have returned to campus are the athletes. And since most of them will be away on Friday night and the women’s basketball team will most likely have a early curfew, it might create enough of a temptation for the thieves to strike. They might want to see what Christmas or Hanukkah presents the students have brought back with them.”

“That’s good work, Sherlock, so we’d better be on high alert on both Thursday and Friday nights. We might also want to take a short nap after we get back to the house on Saturday morning, so we can go back on duty about an hour before the women’s basketball game starts. And we should probably remain on alert until the game ends and everyone has either left campus or the students have all returned to their dorms. After that, we should return to the house quickly and take another quick nap so we can go back on our normal watch on Saturday night.”

“That sounds like a wise precaution, although it will be exhausting. I assume the indoor track teams will be staying overnight in Boulder, and the men’s basketball team will fly back after the game and sleep on the plane, so they won’t arrive on campus until quite late. I’m not sure what time the track teams will be returning on Saturday, though, because that will depend on what time the meet ends.”

“Those are more good observations. You’re on quite a roll.”

As soon as we finished our breakfast, we threw away the wrappings and bag that our food came in, and then we went upstairs to brush our teeth. After that, we got in bed and cuddled, and it didn’t take very long before we were both fast asleep.

For the next couple of nights, nothing out of the ordinary happened and things were very calm as we prepared to head into the weekend. On Friday, we made our usual run to Dominick’s to get something to eat before resuming the stakeout, and as soon as we finished our meals, we rushed back to the house to get ready. We still had time for one more cup of coffee before we undressed, transitioned, and flew over to the campus, and we arrived there just as the last rays of sunlight faded away .

Throughout the night, we flew back and forth between our two locations looking for anything suspicious, and one thing I noticed was that there seemed to be a little more activity tonight. That surprised me, seeing I wasn’t expecting the other students to start returning until the following day, so I kept a close eye on them and looked for anyone who seemed to be acting suspicious.

After all, we couldn’t rule out that some of the students might possibly be the thieves we were looking for. We didn’t know for sure who had robbed the dorms over Thanksgiving break, so it could have been a group of students that lived locally or had returned early just for that purpose. It could have also been carried out by others with no connection to the campus, so we’d just look for anyone acting suspiciously.

It seemed a few of the returning students were unloading the things they’d brought back with them as quickly as they could from the vehicles they’d arrived in. Then, they spent the rest of the night in their dorm getting it all situated. Others went into Fort Collins looking for something to eat or a little fun, and if they were old enough, they might’ve even gone to one of the bars that were friendly to students before they returned to campus. Anyway, no sooner than a majority of students had either settled in for the night or headed into Fort Collins than I noticed something that definitely looked suspicious, so I flew closer to check it out.

What drew my attention was a dark-colored SUV pulling a small trailer, and when it parked, four guys got out and they were all wearing dark clothing and a dark cap. They weren’t wearing ski masks or anything that covered their faces, but they were heading into a dorm that I’d observed several of the men’s basketball team entering and exiting throughout the week.

Since I couldn’t remember if I’d seen other students moving in and out of that particular dorm earlier, I decided to keep an eye on these guys, seeing I was unsure when the team might be returning. I felt the members of the team were prime candidates to have their rooms broken into, since they’d possibly returned with some valuable items after spending the holiday with their families.

I knew I was taking a chance by doing what I did next, because I transitioned into a Northern Pygmy Owl, which is mostly brown and about the size of a robin. I did it so I’d be less conspicuous as I flew down and pretended to be eating insects as I made a mental note of the license plate number on the vehicle they’d arrived in, just in case they turned out to be the thieves. I also heeded Devin’s warning and watched for predators at the same time, including other owls, since larger owls are known to prey on smaller owls, in addition to other small animals and insects.

Once I’d memorized the license plate information, along with the make and model of the SUV, I flew up to the roof of a nearby building where I could see both the dorm and their SUV. I then waited to see if they were carrying anything when they came back out, and I stayed a Pygmy Owl so I’d be less conspicuous if I chose to move closer to get a description of the guys when they came outside.

Unfortunately, that nearly proved to be a fatal mistake. Although I was watching the SUV and the dorm, I also remained on the lookout for predators as well. Since an owl’s head can rotate nearly 270 degrees, I was able to look in all directions, and I was just beginning to relax when my superior owl hearing picked up the sound of flapping wings. This could either mean that Devin had flown over and spotted me, even though I was no longer a Great Horned Owl, or I was about to be attacked.

I quickly guessed the latter and transitioned into the largest Great Horned Owl imaginable so I could fend off a serious threat, forgetting Devin’s admonition that I should transition into an albatross instead. By the time I spotted the now surprised barn owl, it was coming at me with its talons leading the way, and before I could take flight, it sank those talons into my back and caused me a great deal of pain. Since my head was already facing in its direction, and even though I was in pain, I began snapping at the barn owl with my beak. Regrettably, it was too low on my back for me to reach it.

With no other option, I took flight with the barn owl still attached and I had only one thought on my mind. I headed toward the largest tree I could find and flew close to its lowest and thickest branch so I could either cause the barn owl to release its grip or knock it from my back. I was planning on flying as close to the branch as I could without putting myself in even more danger, while hoping the branch would smack into the barn owl and knock it loose, if it hadn’t already let go. I think the first pass under the branch may have scraped a few feathers off the barn owl’s back, and as I was preparing for another run at the branch, the barn owl decided to disengage.

No longer feeling it’s claws in my back, although I still experienced the pain, I quickly wielded around and prepared to chase after the barn owl, but it was flying away as fast as it could. It was probably afraid that I’d think it looked like a tasty meal and wanted to get to someplace where I couldn’t find it. Once I was convinced the barn owl wasn’t going to bother me again and there wasn’t another threat in sight, I returned to the roof where I’d been watching those guys, hoping they hadn’t left yet.

Even though I was still in considerable pain from where the barn owl had attacked me, I noted the SUV hadn’t moved, so the four guys must not have come out of the dorm while my attention was diverted. It’s also possible they’d already carried some items out and placed them in the SUV and then reentered the dorm, but either way I needed to watch for them to exit the building. I was focusing on the door they had entered when I suddenly thought about a detail I’d overlooked earlier. I hadn’t seen those guys disable security when they’d entered the dorm, so how did they get into the building?

The only way anyone could enter a dorm was if they knew the code for the key pad, and if that was the case, then at least one of them has to be a student who resided in that dorm. Then again, I suppose it’s possible that one of them merely knows someone who’s assigned to that dorm and somehow they found out what the security code was. Maybe they’d observed a current resident of the dorm punching the numbers into the keypad and memorized them, so I assumed that if he wasn’t a student, then he had to live locally. It didn’t mean he had to live in Fort Collins, but he had to at least reside in one of the communities that surround Fort Collins.

As I continued watching for those guys to exit the building, I tested my memory to see if I could recall the information about the license plate on the SUV, as well as its make and model. I wasn’t sure what was taking them so long, but eventually they began to exit the dorm one or two at a time carrying their booty to the SUV.

I tried to make a mental note of the various items they were carrying and noticed they had laptops, tablets, and gaming systems (both Xbox and PlayStation). I also saw portable and compact speakers, headphones, and assorted external hard drives, as well as a variety of expensive athletic shoes (Nike, Addidas, and New Balance). They also had an assortment of jerseys (both pro and college for multiple sports), along with other high-end apparel and sports bags, and they placed each of those items in the back of the SUV.

As they continued exiting and reentering the building, I debated flying over to where Devin was so I could attract his attention and get him to follow me back to this location, but I was hesitant to leave. I was concerned that the guys might leave before I returned and I didn’t want to lose track of them. I wanted to follow them back to their hideout, or wherever they lived, but I especially wanted to find out where they stored the items that they’d stolen, so I could report the location to the authorities.

Eventually, the thieves began bringing out larger items, such as microwaves, mini refrigerators, air purifiers, and an electric scooter, and they placed all of those items in the trailer. They entered it using a door in the far side of the trailer, but I had to fly over to find out how they were entering the trailer, since I didn’t see a way for them to enter the trailer from the back.

As I continued to watch their activities, they eventually wheeled a couple of bicycles out of the dorm as well and they attached them to the bike rack on the back of the trailer. When they got ready to leave, I prepared to follow them, even though I was still in a great deal of pain. I was hoping they weren’t going very far away, because I wasn’t sure how long I could fly before the pain became so severe that I’d be unable to continue.

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