Canoes & picnic tables don't mix

While Suzie, Joe & I were leisurely paddling around the pond, Jamie was fishing and Tim was lounging along the shore. Auntie Maria walked down and while chatting with the boys, watched three young guys (20ish types) toss a picnic table from the town beach off the town docks into the pond. They then proceeded to sit on the beach just watching it float. Maria (former teacher, current member of the committee that oversees the town beach, and next door neighbor to the beach) walked over to confront the boys. Using I'm sure her well-honed "scornfull teacher" voice got the boys to agree that they would indeed pull the table out of the water. 10 minutes later they were still watching it from the beach. Having finished our canoe trip, and having been brought up to speed with the picnic table saga, it became my turn to do something. I walked across the beach to the parking lot area, surveyed the half-dozen vehicles, and tried to guess which would be the most likely get-away car, and started writing down license plate numbers. The Taurus with the mega-boom box speakers in the rear windshield seemed almost too obvious so as I walked back I asked them which car was theirs. They refused to look at me, answer me, or react in any way whatsoever. I specifically asked if theirs was the Taurus, but was greeted (or "un"greeted) by the same non-response. Jamie, who never misses any drama watched the whole scene while pretending to fish off the docks. Almost immediately after I was off the beach and out of sight on "our side" Jamie called over to say they were running for their cars. Before I could get to a close enough vantage point, they were peeling out of the lot in two vehicles (btw - NOT the Taurus). Apparently, as soon as they decided I had the wrong plate number, they figured they better escape at first chance. I found it pretty humorous to think these three 20-something kids were brave enough to pick on a defenseless picnic table, but too scared to face the consequences of such a petty offense. Of course I now had to go get the picnic table out of the water, so I grabbed some rope and hopped back into the canoe and paddled over to were the picnic raft was floating. In case you ever have to perform an aquatic rescue of a table from a canoe, it doesn't go as smoothly as you may think. I did manage to tow it close enough to then wade in and pull it the rest of the way to land. Jamie helped me haul it back up onto the beach, then we all hoisted the canoe up onto the roof of the van (also, not as easy at it may sound - the van roof is about 7ft up) and headed for home to dry-dock the vessel for the winter.