Sunday, October 21, 2007

Adventures in the night

I fell asleep on the couch. Suddenly at 2:30 AM someone was banging on the front door. I noticed the time and thought for some reason my younger daughter had come home from work here rather than her apartment. I asked, "Who's there?" A man answered, "A neighbor." I immediately knew no neighbor would be banging like that on the door at 2:30 AM in the morning, and further more wouldn't be trying to open the door. I said, "Go away" very firmly! The person continued to attempt to open the door, so I said again, "Go away or I'll call the police." The attempt continued so I grabbed the cell phone and called 911. The dispatcher stayed on the phone with me until the police arrived. During part of this I heard someone also attempting to open the back door.

When the police arrived, they showed me someone had apparently tried to run through the plantings along the side of the house, and tipped over all the flower pots and tripped over the downspouts. They told me they would be doing drive arounds and "Go back to sleep." That is easier done than said after that experience.

I did fall asleep again eventually and awoke to find it daylight. I looked at the clock and found it was 9 AM. I was puzzled about why the cell phone alarm didn't go off at 7:30. I found the cell phone was in permanent 911 mode. In other words after I hung up, the only number that could be called again or the only action was 911 until I made a positive action to change the menu. This is really a good feature, but was unexpected. Good thing it's Sunday, and the whole event wasn't further compounded by being late for work!

Update: Talked to the neighbors and they heard men talking between our houses. They were just about to call the police when the squad cars arrived.

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