Story Archive

I Sprang from My Bed to See What’s the Matter

The stories ramp up every holiday season: someone trying to get into a house through the chimney, perhaps inspired by Santa Claus. Sometimes it’s a burglar, sometimes it’s the homeowner who locked themselves out. Invariably, they end up stuck and in need of rescue. This year, the trend gets started with a blaze of glory: a homeowner in Huron, Calif., never heard anything suspicious until he built a fire in his fireplace. Once he lit it, he heard screaming. He ran around the house looking for the source of the distress until he realized it was coming from the chimney; he extinguished the fire and called 911. Firefighters smashed the chimney in a hurried rescue attempt, but the unidentified man, a suspected burglar, was already dead. (RC/Fresno Bee) ...So up to the housetop the coursers he flew; yet another burglar, and an obliviot too.