One night, the
Simpson family's house is robbed by a
cat burglar while the family sleeps; the next morning, the family finds out that several other houses in
Springfield have been robbed. The town's residents arm themselves and install security devices to thwart the burglar, which include giant mechanical legs that cause houses to break off from their foundations and run away. A neighborhood watch group is formed and
Homer is elected as its leader. The street patrol soon devolves into a vigilante group whose members violate laws instead of catching criminals. When Homer is interviewed on news anchor
Kent Brockman's
Smartline, the cat burglar calls into the show and taunts Homer, causing him to inadvertently strangle the stage manager out of rage. The cat burglar reveals he plans to steal the world's largest
cubic zirconia from the Springfield museum. Homer's posse guards the museum, refusing the help of
Grampa, who is accompanied by
Jasper and Molloy, two of his friends from the
Springfield Retirement Castle. After Homer spots a group of teenagers drinking beer, he leaves his post to intervene, but gets drunk with them instead. When the cat burglar subsequently steals the zirconia, Homer is blamed and pelted with fruits and vegetables by the unforgiving townspeople. Later, Grampa deduces that Molloy is the cat burglar and tells his family. Homer captures Molloy at the Retirement Castle, and the surprisingly amiable cat burglar returns the objects he stole. Nevertheless,
Chief Wiggum arrests and imprisons Molloy. At the police station, Molloy tells Homer and the police officers that he has hidden a large amount of stolen money under a giant "T" somewhere in Springfield. Homer and the police officers abruptly leave the station, hoping to find the buried treasure; the commotion attracts dozens of other Springfield residents, who then become determined to find the treasure themselves. After checking several possible sites, the crowd returns to get more information from Molloy, who directs them to a large, T-shaped palm tree on the outskirts of town. The residents excavate the site, but find only a box containing a note from Molloy; he lied about the treasure in order to buy himself enough time to escape from his cell. Several citizens continue to dig, hoping that there is a real treasure, but soon find themselves at a loss for ways to get out of the hole they have made. ==Production==