Last Thursday, between 9:15 am and 1 pm -- likely around 1pm -- someone used a rock from our back yard and smashed one of the small windows in the back door of our house in the 3600 block of Van Buren. It would've taken another person to boost them high enough to reach the lock and knob below and let themselves in. They took a number of valuables, left by the door they broke in, and probably left our yard by the gate between our house and our neighbors to the north.

A friend who is staying with us came home a few minutes after 1 pm. As she was calling the police from our front steps, she saw two men in a white sports car driving slowly down our end of the block, looking at houses. Something about what they were doing raised her suspicion enough that she noted the licence number, which she thinks had an X in it, although she didn't write it down.

A neighbor saw three teenaged males in sports clothes, one taller than the others, walking up and down our end of the block between 12:30 and 1 pm in a way that raised her suspicions.

The 2nd precinct officer directed me to the Home Security Information section of this URL:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/crime-prevention/
She's also making a site visit to our house and has added me to the list of people for block club training. Let me know if you're interested.