D.W.'s Backpack Mishap

Summary
Someone takes off with D.W.'s backpack, but leaves a different one in its place, and she uses the objects in it as clues to try to puzzle out the identity of the thief.

Plot
One summer day, D.W. and Arthur go swimming at the local pool. D.W. soon becomes bored, as Emily is eating lunch, and the Tibbles are putting on suntan cream. D.W. wishes something would happen, and coincidentally, it starts to rain. Everyone leaves in a hurry, and they grab their backpacks. D.W. soon realizes her backpack has been misplaced, and she thinks someone stole it.

The backpack she has belongs to someone named "OM_BLE". D.W. is concerned because all of her important stuff was in her backpack. Her glitter, her Mary Moo Cow doll, and her Crazy Bus cassette tape.

D.W. asks Arthur to look up Omble in the phone book, but Arthur says that it is a fake name. D.W. thinks it is because Omble doesn't want to reveal his real name, and she calls him sneaky.

D.W. doesn't think it is Emily or the Tibbles, as Emily is nice, and the Tibbles aren't smart enough to pull it off. She plans to look for clues by taking out the contents of the backpack. She finds a clay sculpture of the Eiffel Tower, and thinks that it is a unicorn horn, but concludes that unicorns don't steal. She also finds panpipes, and she thinks they are fang hiders. Finally, she finds a snow-globe of the Great Wall of China, and she thinks it is where Omble lives. She also thinks that her Mary Moo Cow doll will become a plastic hamburger if Omble isn't stopped.

D.W. also thinks that Omble flies around in a blimp, looking for backpacks to steal. After he steals one, he leaves an ugly backpack in its place. Emily tells D.W. that she needs to find out more about the items in Omble's bag. D.W. takes it to Brain, and he tells her that the first item is a clay sculpture of the Eiffel Tower. D.W. wants to bike to France to catch Omble, but Arthur says she can't, so she goes to Buster, who's been to France. Buster says it is the Eiffel Tower, and when D.W. asks about the so-called fang hiders, Buster says he has never seen them in France. They go to Sue Ellen, who says they are panpipes, an instrument from the Andes, a mountain range in South America. She also says that the snow-globe is a souvenir from the Great Wall of China. D.W. concludes that Omble has been everywhere.

Arthur and D.W. bike to the pool, because D.W. believes that the criminal returns to the scene of the crime. D.W. asks the pool cleaner if he knows Omble, which he obviously doesn't. She then observes the Crosswire Blimp, thinking it is Omble's. She notices someone running away, thinking it is Omble. It turns out to be just the Tibbles, who are playing in the mud. D.W. then tells Arthur that she really wants to meet him, because he sounds like an interesting person.

The next day in preschool, the Tibbles show D.W. their clay sculpture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and they're building the monuments of the world. It is revealed that Tommy has D.W.'s backpack, and she gives him his backpack. D.W. says that "None of this would have happened if you have written your name on it instead of Omble." They learn that some of the letters have rubbed off, and it really said "Tommy Tibble". Tommy then says that his mom got him the snow globe, and the panpipes are for his folk music lesson. Emily then comes to the pool on her bike, revealing her beret has been misplaced. Instead of her name, it says "Dry Clean Only". D.W. then says she will find the culprit.

Major

 * D.W. Read
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Omble

Minor

 * Arthur Read
 * Emily
 * Jane Read
 * Nadine Flumberghast
 * Mary Moo Cow
 * The Brain
 * Buster Baxter
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong

Cameo

 * Patrick
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Liam
 * Jessica
 * Binky Barnes
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * Brian
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Kyle
 * Marie-Hélène
 * Kenny
 * Steve
 * Polly Lockets
 * Mrs. Tibble

Mentioned

 * Trixie Tibble
 * Muffy Crosswire

Trivia

 * Tommy and D.W. are revealed to have identical backpacks, with the only differences being whose names are on which backpack and the fact that, according to Timmy at least, D.W.'s backpack is much cleaner than Tommy's.
 * While Muffy is absent from this episode, her last name is seen on the blimp D.W. thinks Omble owns.

Episode connections

 * The hat Emily takes at the end of the episode looks like Muffy's from "The Lousy Week."
 * This is the second episode where a kid takes a wrong backpack. The first is "Popular Girls."
 * D.W. still thinks Arthur stole her snowball from "D.W.'s Snow Mystery."
 * Omble is seen written on Tommy's backpack again in "Baby Kate and the Imaginary Mystery."

Errors

 * Sue Ellen says that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space. This is a popular belief, but it is not true.

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