MORE FUN WITH SECURITY ALARMS
This post could also be titled "The result of good intentions and poor execution." If you read my post about setting off the alarm in my office a while back then you can imagine that security alarms are not my favorite thing in the world. And for some reason lately I've found myself in several situations involving security alarms and I have to tell you ... they haven't turned out well. Below is an account of my latest adventure.
So Allison bought a house several months ago and since she lives alone I can see the attraction towards and potential need for a security system. Don't like it ... but I get why she wanted it installed. After my fiasco at work I've pretty much been scared to even attempt to go in and shut this thing off if she's not there. I've done it once, but was very nervous about the whole thing. I don't know if it's a fear of stringing together multiple situations of setting alarms off or maybe the thought that if I set off the alarm and the police come out then I'll potentially have to face the music on several unpaid tickets I have (hopefully officer Dan is not reading this). So a few weekends ago I had some friends in town that I was hanging out with and Allison had a birthday party for a friend of hers so we went to our separate events and figured we'd see each other a few days later. Well, I ended up driving home around 10:30 and she had told me she wasn't going to be out late so I got the genius idea to go to her house and if she wasn't there I would just wait until she got home and she would hopefully be pleasantly surprised by the unexpected opportunity for us to hang out for a little while.
So this is where things go bad. I pull into the driveway, notice that she is not home so decide I'll take a chance with the alarm and go inside to watch t.v. until she got home. I go to the front door (constantly repeating the security code in my head), put the key in the lock, turn they key, open the door and then as I open it I hear the beeping telling you that you have 30 seconds to disarm the alarm. This all sort of happened in slow motion as I remember it. However the slow motion part quickly ended when the chain lock on the door caught. I freaked. Big time. I reached around in an effort to unlatch the lock but for obvious reasons that's not easy to do. I was screwed. I had no way to open that door but I knew that in about 20 seconds the alarm was going to start going off. I know it's loud inside but wasn't sure if it would be loud enough outside to draw the attention of any neighbors. I had called Allison just before arriving at her house and she didn't answer so I knew that if I called her to tell her what happened she wouldn't get the call. I also knew that if this were the case then there were going to be cops there shortly. Now I don't know what the "right" thing to do is in this situation ... but I got in the car and got my butt out of there. And I mean quickly. I thought to shut the door back but I left so quickly that I apparently forgot to lock it back. It did not take me long to realize there was no way I would be able to explain any of this to the cops and with Allison not answering her phone there was no way to verify my story or who I was. So talk about a good idea going all wrong.
A few things that I did not learn until later is that her parents are second on the list of people to call so they got a call about 10:45 at night about the alarm going off at their daughter's house and no one could get a hold of her on her cell phone. They apparently did not appreciate that. So I'm thinking maybe it was a little irresponsible to just take off like that ... but man, cops were coming and I did not want any part of that. And the moral of the story is ... if I ever get to Allison's house and she's not there, then I'll just be waiting in the car. I'm done with alarms. F-O-R-E-V-E-R!
So Allison bought a house several months ago and since she lives alone I can see the attraction towards and potential need for a security system. Don't like it ... but I get why she wanted it installed. After my fiasco at work I've pretty much been scared to even attempt to go in and shut this thing off if she's not there. I've done it once, but was very nervous about the whole thing. I don't know if it's a fear of stringing together multiple situations of setting alarms off or maybe the thought that if I set off the alarm and the police come out then I'll potentially have to face the music on several unpaid tickets I have (hopefully officer Dan is not reading this). So a few weekends ago I had some friends in town that I was hanging out with and Allison had a birthday party for a friend of hers so we went to our separate events and figured we'd see each other a few days later. Well, I ended up driving home around 10:30 and she had told me she wasn't going to be out late so I got the genius idea to go to her house and if she wasn't there I would just wait until she got home and she would hopefully be pleasantly surprised by the unexpected opportunity for us to hang out for a little while.
So this is where things go bad. I pull into the driveway, notice that she is not home so decide I'll take a chance with the alarm and go inside to watch t.v. until she got home. I go to the front door (constantly repeating the security code in my head), put the key in the lock, turn they key, open the door and then as I open it I hear the beeping telling you that you have 30 seconds to disarm the alarm. This all sort of happened in slow motion as I remember it. However the slow motion part quickly ended when the chain lock on the door caught. I freaked. Big time. I reached around in an effort to unlatch the lock but for obvious reasons that's not easy to do. I was screwed. I had no way to open that door but I knew that in about 20 seconds the alarm was going to start going off. I know it's loud inside but wasn't sure if it would be loud enough outside to draw the attention of any neighbors. I had called Allison just before arriving at her house and she didn't answer so I knew that if I called her to tell her what happened she wouldn't get the call. I also knew that if this were the case then there were going to be cops there shortly. Now I don't know what the "right" thing to do is in this situation ... but I got in the car and got my butt out of there. And I mean quickly. I thought to shut the door back but I left so quickly that I apparently forgot to lock it back. It did not take me long to realize there was no way I would be able to explain any of this to the cops and with Allison not answering her phone there was no way to verify my story or who I was. So talk about a good idea going all wrong.
A few things that I did not learn until later is that her parents are second on the list of people to call so they got a call about 10:45 at night about the alarm going off at their daughter's house and no one could get a hold of her on her cell phone. They apparently did not appreciate that. So I'm thinking maybe it was a little irresponsible to just take off like that ... but man, cops were coming and I did not want any part of that. And the moral of the story is ... if I ever get to Allison's house and she's not there, then I'll just be waiting in the car. I'm done with alarms. F-O-R-E-V-E-R!
posted by Craig at 3:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home