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Let me take you back to a situation that I’m sure is common with many of you:

When I was growing up, every day after school I would head over to a friend’s house and we would go outside and play baseball or football, depending on what was in season. Next to his house was a large piece of land known as the “common ground.” The property belonged to the county and was available for anyone to use. 

As we got older and a little bit stronger, we would occasionally hit a tennis ball that would land in a neighbor’s yard. It wasn’t breaking any windows or shattering furniture. The small rubber tennis ball would simply fly or even bounce over the fence and land in the back yard, only a few feet from the gate. 

Some of the neighbors didn’t mind this at all. They enjoyed watching us play and told us we could come through the gate any time to get the balls. If they were in the backyard, they would even throw the balls back to us. No problem, right? Wrong!

One day, after a tennis ball skipped into a neighbor’s backyard, he came out of his house and told us “No more!” Apparently he was sick and tired of us touching his grass or gate handle and so he told us we couldn’t play baseball anymore. In fact, he told us to play the opposite way and put the outfield in the middle of the street. Apparently he preferred to watch us dodge cars while catching fly balls. Who cares if we get run-over, as long as we weren’t reaching over his fence to get our tennis balls back. In fact, I think he actually stole our tennis balls.

If you’ve played sports, I’m sure this has happened to you at some point in time. Some grumpy old person got mad and took your tennis ball or football and never gave it back. For those of you who went to this legalistic 1950s Bible camp with me, you may remember the time we were told to remove 1st base from the baseball field because it was closer to the girls’ cabins than the guys’ cabins. When a lefty pulled the ball down the first base line, we weren’t allowed to get the ball because we weren’t allowed within 200 feet of a female. Therefore, game over!

Anyway, these instances aren’t foreign to any of us! I had some flashbacks to these childhood memories when I read a story in the paper the other day.

An 89-year-old woman in Ohio is being charged with petty theft because she refused to give back a football that landed in her yard.

You might say, “Aww, that’s sad.” I say, “It’s about time!!!” Finally, there is revenge for every kid that has lost a baseball or basketball to a cranky adult. Justice has been served for every kid who lost a soccer ball because it rolled down the street and into someone’s yard.

So you might say, “Yeah, but it’s their yard!” True, but that’s no reason to steal! If you accidentally parked your car in my drive-way, getting my house confused with your friend’s house, I have no right to steal your car. Instead, I’m going to politely tell you you’re at the wrong house and help you find your friend’s house if I can. If it happens again, no big deal. No harm, no foul!

Be nice, don’t steal, have some compassion, and take the only lesson you can learn from fans at Wrigley: If it comes to you and it’s not yours, throw it back!

(PS- If you can’t read this with a sense of humor, you probably shouldn’t read it at all.)

Tags: 89-year-old, arrested, Blue Ash, Losing tennis balls, Ohio, Old people, petty theft