Years ago, when I was still in the military, my parents had a serial beef thief. This guy never took more than a few items at a time, but he made it a frequent thing when they would leave home for even a short time. He definitely liked the better cuts of beef which pissed the old man off more than if the guy had stolen it all. I came home on leave and stayed at home one of the evenings that they went out. Within 10 minutes, sure enough, the mystery shopper could be heard rummaging around down stairs.
I grabbed an old 20 gauge double barreled shotgun loaded with bird shot and as I opened the door, cocked it so that it could be easily heard. I then bounced over the rear entry in time to watch the guy run out of the basement. One shot in the air had him diving behind a pile of dirt in the back yard. The second peppered the top of the pile well enough to blast dirt onto the cowering thief. Being out of ammo, I made a big to do of reloading the gun. That was the moment I witnessed a truly olympic level performance as the guy made a break for the woods nearby.
Never had another bit of meat to walk off after that night.
Steve
