Spoiler: Must have been a really good customer for the owner/manager to not mention the fursuit.

F*** copper thieves!

It was/is a really big problem up my way. A fellow fur's family was hit when they were trying to clear-out their grandmother's estate and prepare the house to put it on the market about 10 years ago. All the pipes were stripped out of the basement.

I did think that incident mentioned was a bit oddly specific...

Why not snagged from real life when one can? It was all over the news. It was crazier in a city to my southwest where they'd find house after house that was on the market hit like that. Up here in Maine, baseboard hot water heat is very popular. In those homes, they'd find the aluminum fins from the baseboard heat left behind all over the floor. How in the blazes did these thieves have time to strip all those fins off? Obviously, the homes in question weren't well watched by neighbors.

Real Life Writes the Plot and its cousin Ripped From the Headlines are some of the best tropes for coming up with story ideas. As for myself, I'm trying my hand at writing a story that could be used as the basis for a Biography á Clef. (It's still in its early draft stages, but still. )

When I have time, I'll take a look.

Thank you!