It’s late Sunday night and Dennis is in his downtown office doing some paperwork so he can start the new week without being covered up with last week’s work. His office is actually an old residence in a depressed area of the city. Like others in the neighborhood, it was renovated for business use.

The quiet of the night is suddenly broken by a raking sound at the back of the house. The old house quivers a tiny bit.

Ever so cautiously, Dennis follows the sound as it leads him downstairs into the basement. Through a small window in the basement wall, he sees a man with a crowbar attempting to pry open the door.

"What should I do?" Dennis must be wondering. Dennis is not a combative type fellow, but neither is he a willing crime victim.

During a period of indecision, Dennis notices a sledge hammer lying on the floor near the foot of the stairway.

He picks up the sledge hammer, looks around for an appropriate target, then strikes a metal stanchion — two times, as hard as he can. The steel pillar produces a deafening ring from the hammer strikes. "It was loud enough to wake the dead," Dennis later recalls to police.

The sound startles the would-be burglar, who instantly drops his crowbar and high-tails it for parts unknown.

Dennis, of course, has already dialed 911. After a momentary pause, he cautiously opens the basement door to look for any damage.

Yes, there’s some wood chipped away. But there’s something else of even greater interest — the abandoned crow bar and the burglar’s canvas bag containing a variety of other burglar tools. These tools, the cops hope, hold an assortment of latent fingerprints.

Oh, yes, there’s one more thing in the canvas bag — a business size envelope from the power company with the burglar’s name and home address on the cover.

Damage to the basement door — $100. Value of the bag of burglary tools — $150. Letter addressed to the burglar — priceless!