GYPSIES!!

Susan called out "there are people in the lot next door that looked an awful lot like real life gypsies." I came out on the back patio and, sure enough, there was a whole crew of gypsies crawling in and amongst the wreckage of what used to be the house next door. They were furtively collecting and hauling off steel support cables as fast as they could get them out of the heap of rubble.

All was going well until the manager of the construction crew showed up and then all hell broke loose. Much shouting and hand-waving commenced. The carts were searched. When the stolen metal rebar was discovered, pieces suddenly started flying through the air; the pieces thrown by the construction manager were hurtled towards the rubble pile, the pieces thrown by the gypsies defiantly went in the opposite direction. Suddenly two carts were sent careening down the street, tipping over as they hit the rubble pile. 

The end result was that the gypsies slunk off with just their pre-rubble-raiding load of coke cans. And Susan and I had a very entertaining half-hour of surreptitious picture-taking and eavesdropping.

scavaging

loading

caught

hurtling (note the piece of rebar flying in the upper left hand corner)

a sullen departure