The Pool Nobody Was Supposed to Touch
The first thing I noticed that Saturday morning was the silence.
No humming pump.
No splashing water.
No faint mechanical noise coming from the backyard.
I stepped outside with my coffee and stared at the pool.
It was empty.
Not low.
Not partially drained.
Completely empty.
For a few seconds, I simply stood there trying to understand what I was looking at.
The pool had been part of my property since the day I bought the house. I had paid for its installation, maintained it, replaced the pump twice, and spent thousands of dollars keeping it in good condition.
And now there wasn't a single inch of water left.
I walked closer.
The drain cover had been removed.
The equipment panel was open.
Someone had clearly tampered with the system.
I immediately knew who had done it.
Karen.
My next-door neighbor.
Karen had been obsessed with my pool for months.
At first, she complained about the noise.
Then she complained about the lights.
Then she claimed the water was somehow damaging her landscaping.
Eventually, she began telling people in the neighborhood that the pool had actually been built partly on her property.
I had laughed the first time I heard it.
I wasn't laughing anymore.
I grabbed my phone and checked the security cameras.
There it was.
Karen had entered my backyard through the side gate at 2:13 that morning.
She had stood beside the pool equipment for almost twenty minutes.
Then she left.
The video didn't show everything clearly, but it showed enough.
Someone had deliberately drained my pool.
I called the police.
But before I could even finish explaining what happened, I heard shouting from the driveway.
Karen was back.
And this time, she wasn't alone.
Two police officers were standing beside her.
Karen pointed directly at me.
"That's him!"
I walked toward them.
"What's going on?"
Karen folded her arms.
"Officer, that's my pool."
I stared at her.
Then at the officers.
Then back at Karen.
"Your pool?"
"Yes."
One of the officers looked uncomfortable.
Karen continued.
"He stole it from my property."
I almost laughed.