It's Time To Quit Joking About Santa Claus!

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" department...

When I do a walk-through of a home with a client, I mention that we should locate a motion sensor near the stairs to protect against an intruder entering the home some unprotected way and making his/her way to the master suite, typically on the second floor of a two-story home.  I use as an illustration, always tongue-in-cheek, "if Santa Claus were to change sides and come down your chimney to rob you instead of delivering gifts" ...and it's tongue-in-cheek because who, in his right mind, would ever actually come down a chimney to commit a break-in?

Well, now I know.  I saw, in the "crawl" at the bottom of the TV screen, while watching the morning news, that a man got stuck in the chimney of a California home doing just that.  The police responded after an accomplice entered the home through a door and tripped the home's alarm system in an attempt to rescue the poor fool.  According to a report by NBC News in Los Angeles, "When the officers arrived to the home, they found the suspect's feet dangling from the chimney and immediately identified him." 

Apparently this isn't the first time it's happened.   Last November, according to a report by Fox News in Chicago, a burglar died after being stuck in a chimney and the homeowner, upon returning (and not realizing someone was in the chimney),  lit a fire in his fireplace.

I guess it's time to quit joking about Santa Claus!