{"id":1178,"date":"2025-12-22T16:44:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2025-12-22T16:44:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:44:40","slug":"i-kept-coming-home-to-a-toothpick-in-the-lock-instead-of-calling-the-police-i-took-revenge-on-my-own-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/?p=1178","title":{"rendered":"I Kept Coming Home to a Toothpick in The Lock \u2014 Instead Of Calling the Police, I Took Revenge on My Own Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover aligncenter is-light mycontentblock has-medium-font-size\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;min-height:62px;aspect-ratio:unset;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"186\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-198 size-large\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-1024x186.png\" style=\"object-position:50% 50%\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" data-object-position=\"50% 50%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-1024x186.png 1024w, https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-300x54.png 300w, https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-768x139.png 768w, https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-1536x279.png 1536w, https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-2048x372.png 2048w, https:\/\/vibepress.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-2.47.25-PM-1-1320x239.png 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim-0 has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center my-cover-title has-ast-global-color-8-color has-ast-global-color-5-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-small-font-size wp-elements-3e3bb7533c70723f5f9bdc2f522de4a1\"><strong>I Kept Coming Home to a Toothpick in The Lock \u2014 Instead Of Calling the Police, I Took Revenge on My Own Terms<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-26e3a47deb63b2456252f7861e837f84\">One night after work, I came home to find a toothpick jammed into my door lock. My brother helped fix it, but the same thing happened the next evening. We set up a hidden camera\u2014and what I saw shocked me. It wasn\u2019t a vandal. It was a little girl in a bright yellow raincoat, nervously sticking toothpicks into the lock before running away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    atOptions = {\n        'key' : '9e49f4ce267f7bab92bbdb38b733742b',\n        'format' : 'iframe',\n        'height' : 90,\n        'width' : 728,\n        'params' : {}\n    };\n<\/script>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/brillianceremisswhistled.com\/9e49f4ce267f7bab92bbdb38b733742b\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-b04423adf45f0de8507da4b2107d3a40\">The next day, I waited outside. When she appeared, I gently asked why. She whispered, \u201cMy dad used to fix locks. He got sick and went away. Sometimes I pretend he still has jobs to do.\u201d My heart sank. She wasn\u2019t causing trouble\u2014she was trying to keep her dad\u2019s memory alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ac21c20f5d69afcb2e235735a81d0985\">I invited her to help me with small repairs instead. Soon, she was showing up regularly, tightening hinges, fixing toys, and telling me stories about her father. When I found an old toolbox in my garage\u2014labeled in her dad\u2019s handwriting\u2014I gave it to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8db475406e95e1983da403e4d1e5e774\">Tears filled her eyes: \u201cThis is his.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-accc01f17628ad1bf849b0755a96835b\">From then on, she called herself \u201cLittle Tomas,\u201d honoring her father by helping neighbors with repairs. The girl who once left toothpicks in my door found healing through fixing, and she reminded me that even small acts of kindness can grow into something much bigger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One night after work, I came home to find a toothpick jammed into my door lock. My brother helped fix it, but the same thing happened the next evening. We set up a hidden camera\u2014and what I saw shocked me. It wasn\u2019t a vandal. It was a little girl in a bright yellow raincoat, nervously &#8230; <a title=\"I Kept Coming Home to a Toothpick in The Lock \u2014 Instead Of Calling the Police, I Took Revenge on My Own Terms\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/?p=1178\" aria-label=\"Read more about I Kept Coming Home to a Toothpick in The Lock \u2014 Instead Of Calling the Police, I Took Revenge on My Own Terms\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions\/1180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vibepress.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}