My wife was up extra early Sunday morning, preparing for her weekly long run, when she noticed something suspicious going on outside. A man (older, African-American, pretty big) picked up our neighbor's Washington Post and walked off with it. Worse, he was pushing a cart that was filled with other Sunday newspapers, as if he was going around the neighborhood any stealing everyone's newspapers in an organized fashion. Perhaps he was planning to resell them on the street? J didn't intervene, but told me about it when I woke up, and I emailed our neighbor.

Our neighbor subscribes to the Sunday-only Washington Post, and hasn't received one in months. He kept calling the publisher to complain, and they assured him it was being delivered. Now that he knows what's happening, he's planning to stake the scene out very early next Sunday, and try to catch the thief in the act. 

I don't subscribe to the dead tree edition as I read it every day online, preferring the more interactive format (chats, blogs) and preferring not to get newsprint all over my hands. But I do have a general law-and-order interest in exposing the neighborhood newspaper thief. So, if you get the Washington Post delivered to your home in Columbia Heights, watch out for this guy. And, if you buy your newspaper from a guy on the street, please check to make sure they're an official employee or licensed vendor of the Washington Post.

Speaking of criminals, have you been reading the Washington Post series on Dick Cheney? Pretty good, but I'm sure there's WAY more he's involved in that will never see the light of day. What we know already about Iraq, secrecy, Plame Case, etc is just the tip of the iceberg.