| By Bob Weaver
In the Village of Hur we called a criminal case involving the theft of items from our house "The Great Ex-Lax Caper."
Ex-Lax is an over-the-counter laxative that appears to be chocolate candy, small squares of a sugary treat to relieve constipation.
The medication was a family favorite to deal with such a problem.
Coming home from school, I noticed that a giant-sized box of Ex-Lax on the coffee table had been opened and the foil wrapping had been dropped on the floor.
A short time later, my mom came home from work and had a small spell, briefly thinking that I ate the entire box.
Then my dad discovered that a pistol and a couple of guns were missing, with other assorted household items, including my precious non-electric train set.
Calling the county's only State Policeman, Trooper Lloyd Haynes to report the theft, he arrived shortly to investigate the crime, not a breaking and entering, just a walking into the open house and taking the goods.
In the 1950s, very few people locked their doors.
My dad, for whatever reason, suspected a young lad in his early teens who lived in a backwoods hollow behind our house.
Trooper Haynes walked into the hollow some distance to investigate the matter.
Haynes later reported he ask the lad's dad if he had been making trips to the outhouse, the man replying, "He's been out there a bunch of times, must be something he et."
Haynes knew he had his guy, and confronted the lad about the whereabouts of the stolen objects, after which the lad took him to a woodsy hilltop to reveal the location.
The trooper returned the stolen merchandise to the house, saying that was about the easiest crime solving he had ever done.
The youth was never charged, but he did hoe-out our garden for the rest of the summer.
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