Home Alone 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

saw a burglar yesterday," Alex said. " And I saw a burglar today."
    "Alex, listen to Chief Flanagan," his mother said.
    "There was no one in that house," Flanagan said.
    "Yes, there was," Alex insisted.
    The chief of police frowned. His mom looked shocked. "Apologize to Chief Flanagan, and go to your room!"
    Alex angrily jumped to his feet. "Excuse me for being a good citizen." He stormed up the stairs.
    His dumb sister and brother were waiting in the hall upstairs to torment him. Stan had his dumb parrot.
    "Loser!" the dumb parrot squawked.
    "Shut up!" Alex snapped.
    "Now that you've pranked the cops twice, it goes on your permanent record," Stan taunted him.
    "For the rest of your life, if you call for he!p, it won't come," Molly added.
    "And now we have to fork over much needed family cash to pay for a bunch of broken doors," said Stan.
    "You've stained the family name, ape-face," Molly said.
    "The world laughs at you," Stan said with painful finality.
    Alex went into his room and slammed the door.
    He hated them all.

17
    There was bad news and good news, Beaupre thought as he sat in the ranch house living room that night. The bad news was that someone had called the police on him again. And this time he'd just barely escaped.
    The good news was that they'd found the old lady who'd accidentally taken the bag with the toy car in it. She was a seventy-eight-year-old widow named Greta Hess and she lived alone. She'd recently flown to Chicago from San Francisco on the same day Beaupre and his gang were to have flown to Hong Kong.
    "There is no doubt in my mind that she has that car," Beaupre said.
    "You gonna wait until tomorrow and break into her house?" Jernigan asked.
    "There's no point in waiting until tomorrow," Beaupre said. "She lives alone and she doesn't work. That means she's there day and night."
    "Then what are you going to do?" Unger asked.
    "I'm going into that house tonight," Beaupre said.
    "But she'll be home," Jernigan said.
    "That's right," said Beaupre.

18
    That night Alex saw the most unbelievable thing yet. He'd snuck up into the attic and was watching through the telescope when Peter Beaupre, the guy with the butt-inspection gloves snuck into Mrs. Hess's house again.
    Only this time the old lady was home!
    Alex could feel his own heart thumping as he watched Beaupre search silently through rooms, always careful to stay out of Mrs. Hess's sight. It was unbelievable! He was actually robbing the place while she was home!
    In one hand, Alex held the portable phone. But he wasn't going to call the cops. Not unless it looked like Mrs. Hess was going to get hurt.
    After a while, the blue van rolled quietly up the street. Beaupre quietly let himself out the front door of Mrs. Hess's house, went down the driveway and got into the van. It turned around and disappeared into the dark.
    Meanwhile, Mrs. Hess closed the curtains in her bedroom on the second floor. She'd never noticed a thing.
    Alex put down the phone and went downstairs to his bedroom. Something really weird was going on. That guy was going through houses, but not taking anything from them. He'd been in the Steffans' house and Mrs. Hess's house.
    What was he looking for?
    Which house would he break into next?
    Back in his room, Alex drew a map of the neighborhood, x-ing out the houses the burglar had already searched.
    It looked like he was going to hit the Alcotts' house next.
    That gave Alex an idea. Actually, it was a plan involving the following items:
    1. One television remote with one of Stan's rifle scopes attached.
    2. One remote control toy car with 8mm video camera attached with duct tape.
    3. One TV wired to pick up images from the video camera.
    4. One ingenious eight-year-old boy.

19
    More bad news.
    Beaupre had searched the old lady's house and come up with nothing. He'd even found the bag that they'd accidentally switched at the San Francisco airport. It was empty.
    "She's an old lady," Alice Ribbons pointed out. "What use would she