Sabotage

• Brady Swann, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2009

On the fifth of April my Father and I were heading down to the park for a run around. So sorry, let me introduce myself, I am Harrison. I am 9 and I live with my Mum and Dad. Dad is Graham and he is 42, and Mum Fiona who is 32.

Eagerly I stepped onto the freshly mown grass and kicked the ball to Dad. Then I suddenly noticed someone cautiously stepping into a restricted area surrounded by machinery. I yelled out to Dad and when he looked, he too was asking questions in his mind. When we returned home, I ran upstairs to tell Mum what we had seen but she seemed a little bit sceptical but then Dad came up and confirmed what we saw. Later that night, Dad and I drove back down to the park and watched for more suspicious activity. Again we saw the same person walk into the area cautiously. We watched and watched until Dad fell asleep at 11:00pm so then it was my chance to get a closer look. I secured a headlight on my head so I could see and headed for the fence. Carefully I jumped over the fence and landed on my two feet perfectly. That was when I felt really nervous. I turned my head light off and searched. I caught the man sabotaging a backhoe.

Swiftly and cautiously I went and tackled the man and tied his hands together with a rope. After that I ran back to Dad and woke him up. He followed me to where I had left the man and we called the police. They arrived soon after and he was taken into custody. Dad an I were thanked by the police and the next day we had a visit from the Lord Mayor Campbell Newman to thank us personally.

The lesson Dad and I hoped the criminal learnt is that it is never okay to damage other people’s property and never underestimate the element of SURPRISE!!!