Light-Sleeping Preschooler Ends Thief’s Streak

A New Zealand couple thought they were hearing tales from their son’s dreams when the 3-year-old described a man with a light outside at night. They learned differently recently when, in the pre-dawn hours, their son woke them with an “absolutely gut-wrenching scream,” the mother told stuff.co.nz.

After the scream, the parents discovered their outside gate standing open and footprints in the frost. A toolbox and extension cords had recently gone missing at the residence, so the pieces came together for the parents.

The character in their son’s unsettling and recurring dream was a real-life thief.

The next night—with the preschooler safe at his grandma’s house—the parents set up a surveillance using a smart phone app. They brought in police as soon as movement in the yard activated the phone.

The man with the light in the night was a 15-year-old who had allegedly been stealing garden tools from neighborhood homes. S