The Sweetest Heist

The footfalls of the two men echoed as they walked down the quiet street. Both men were dressed in black to blend into the night. They were wearing black cargo pants. Black sweaters. Even the same pair of black boots. The only difference was one was a size 8, and the other was a size 11. The larger man was carrying a black duffel bag, the strap crossing his chest diagonally. The other was wearing a smaller black backpack. 

The two men stopped in front of a door. It was wooden with a window built into it. Vinyl lettering ran across the glass. Harper’s Bakery.

“This is it,” the smaller man said to the other. 

“Ok, get to work,” he replied. 

The smaller man knelt in front of the door, slipped off his backpack and pulled out a small metal box while the larger man peered into the darkness of the street nervously. 

“Hurry up,” said the bigger man. 

“Don’t rush me,” snapped the shorter man while he selected a lockpick. “You focus on keeping lookout.” He leaned in towards the door’s lock. It was a simple cylinder lock. He quickly got to work. The metallic rattling and scratching of the lockpick cut through the night before the lock made a loud clicking sound and the door opened inwards. 

“See, no problem,“ said the smaller man triumphantly while he returned his lockpick.

“What do you want, a medal?” asked the taller man sarcastically. “Come on, let’s go.”

The smaller man stood up while re-shouldering his backpack and pushed the door open. The door struck a bell that was positioned to announce customers entering. The sound of the bell was deafening in the still of the night. 

Both men froze, waiting to see if they had been discovered. After an agonizing amount of time passed they let out a collective sigh of relief. The shorter man opened the door fully before stepping in. The bigger man stopped to reach up and carefully unscrew the bell before gently closing the door. 

The bakery was a long and thin room. The door shared the wall with a large window. The wall opposite had several shelving units. Two display cabinets sat in front of the window, showing off the bakery goods to passing customers. 

The two men started to walk towards the large counter on the right side of the room. Scattered around the middle of the bakery were several smaller display tables, one of which the larger man bumped into, nearly knocking it over. 

“God, be careful will you?” The smaller man whispered angrily. 

“Shit, I’m sorry. It’s hard to see in here,” replied the bigger man while he steadied the table. 

“Come on, we need to go into the back,” the shorter man said before leading the way past the counter and through the open doorway into the back room. 

The back room contained several ovens and some metal stacking racks that stood haphazardly against the wall. To the left of the door was a large metal worktop. 

“Help me move this.”

They each moved to opposite ends of the table and struggled to lift it. After much effort, they were able to half carry, half drag the table away from the wall. Both men were breathing heavily and sweating. 

“Ok,” said the shorter man between breaths. “Up there, that’s where we need to drill.” He pointed up at the corner of the wall that separated the bakery from the next building. 

“Let me get the drill out,” said the larger man as he dropped the duffel bag on the floor and crouched down and rummaged through it before pulling out a heavy-duty hand drill.

“We are good to go,” he said with a smile. 

The noise of the drilling was impossible to avoid. Their entire plan was based on drilling a hole through to the room on the opposite side of that wall. The smaller man had stepped back into the main room, partly to keep watch, but also to avoid the loud noise of the drill. 

After several minutes, the bigger man appeared at the doorway, still holding the drill and wearing safety goggles. 

“Psst,” he said, trying to get the smaller man’s attention. “We are in.”

They walked back into the back room of the bakery. The shorter man was dismayed by the amount of dust on the floor. They were going to have to clean that. 

“Good job, now let’s finish up here,” the smaller man said as he walked under the recently drilled hole. 

“What’s next?” asked the taller man. 

“We need to reinforce the hole,” replied the smaller man. “Pass me the hose.”

The larger man pulled a length of garden hose out of the duffle bag. It had been cut down to size ready for tonight. He handed the garden hose to the shorter man who began to feed it through the hole they had drilled in the wall.

“Ok, done. Let’s tidy up and get out of here before someone catches us,” said the smaller man while he stepped back to admire his work. 

“Does that mean we have to move that table back?” asked the bigger man. 

They both looked at the table and sighed. 

Tidying was relatively quick. They swept up the dust and wrestled the table back into position before packing up their gear and leaving the way they came in. The hardest part was re-attaching the bell. 

In the morning the street was filling up with people. The baker was already hard at work, oblivious to what had happened in his bakery the night before. The two men were sitting at their desks in the office building they worked in, smiling to themselves as the sweet smell of baked goods wafted across the office. 

“Where is that smell of cookies coming from?” asked a woman sitting at the desk beside the smaller man’s. 

“Oh, I’m not sure,” he replied, before turning to the larger man and grinning.