My Worst Fears Coming True

For anyone who had never seen our house, let me explain a little bit about it. When Andy and I were first picking out a lot to build our house on, we decided it would be great to get one that backed the green area (for those non-desert dwellers, it is an indentation in the ground where water can collect when it rains, otherwise we get major flooding). We figured that with no one behind us, our backyard would be quieter and more pleasant to spend time in. That thinking was clearly flawed, as we have discovered. Having an open area behind your house means that teenagers can sit back there and drink or smoke (as we have witnessed), or vagabonds can camp out there (as our next-door neighbors witnessed), or people can even light the grass on fire (probably those same teenagers) just inches away from our fence. But the worst part is that people could jump over the fence and be in our backyard, and no one else would be able to tell. It has always been my worst fear that someone would jump the fence and try to break into our house at night. And Monday night that fear (almost) came true.
Andy and I were sleeping, when all of a sudden I heard a man's voice. It woke me up, so I turned and looked at the clock. It was about 3:15 AM. Then I heard that voice again, coming from our backyard.
"There's someone in our backyard!" I whispered as I shook Andy's shoulder. I was too scared to move. He got up, grabbed his baseball bat, and went over to the window to peek out.
"There's two men out there, standing on the top of the fence," he whispered to me. I was terrified. Just then, the phone rang. It was our next-door neighbor, LeeAnn.
"Are you guys okay?" she asked. I told her we were fine, but what was going on? She told me that Jason (her husband) had heard their dogs barking, so he opened the back door and there was a policeman back there. He told Jason that there was a man that had been breaking into cars in the neighborhood, and that they were searching the yards for him. The two men in our yard were also policemen. I thanked LeeAnn for the information, and told Andy what was happening. He went to check on the baby and to make sure no one was in the house. When we knew everything was okay, we both went out in the living room so we could try to see what was going on.
There were police cars all up and down our street, and some other officers with dogs walking around the sides of our house. We waited and waited, but we really couldn't tell what was going on because our house is only one story, and all we can see is the street directly in front of our house. After about an hour, Andy called Jason to see if they had any new information. Jason told Andy that he could see the police had someone in handcuffs down the street (they have a two story house and can see everything). We felt much better after that, and after twenty minutes more or so, all the police cars left. It was really hard to get back to sleep after that. Every little noise would bring me instantly alert, so I did not sleep much that night.
The next day, Tamara, (our neighbor on the other side) came over and informed me that she had found a knife out by her garbage can. So the man had probably been in her backyard. He may have been in ours, too. When Andy and I went into the living room, we noticed that our motion-sensitive security light on our back porch was on. I assumed it was triggered by the cops, but who knows? It may have been the car thief! I feel very blessed that we were all safe, and no one in the neighborhood got hurt. But next time, we will definitely buy a house that has another house behind it.