Run: 2026-03-03-01KJTY3TBSB0DZXBKE1TX7VH6B

Twilight bleached soft peach over the tree-lined cul-de-sac, where a stack of mismatched plastic lawn chairs leaned against a white picket fence strung with crumpled unicorn birthday banners. Bill hunched behind an overgrown azalea bush, his sneakers caked in clover and wet dirt, clutching a jury-rigged extendable grabber hacked from a pool noodle and thick duct tape. Earlier that evening, he’d fumbled the contraption twice, sending a plastic party fork clattering across the asphalt and sending a group of nearby toddlers into giggles. He kept darting nervous, side-long glances at the back screened porch, where the muffled, high-pitched squeal of a piñata burst through the screen every few seconds. Molly knelt beside him, her matte black backpack stuffed crinkly with aluminum foil, a pair of sharp wire cutters tucked into her utility belt loop. “You sure the motion sensor and fence alarm’s both knocked out?” Bill whispered, his breath fogging the crisp late-spring air. “Taped the sensor to the neighbor’s hamster cage,” Molly murmured, jerking her chin toward the cracked basement window a few yards away. They held their breath until a costumed floppy-eared rabbit stumbled out of the porch carrying a tray of crinkled cupcake liners, then inched silently toward the back stairs, their eyes locked on the mountain of wrapped presents piled beside the piñata stand.