Intruders

I was surprised to discover that I had not related the disturbing events around our home on this blog yet!

About 2 weeks ago my wife and I were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of someone crashing through the bushes behind our home, running behind our bedroom window, colliding into our 2 outdoor chairs, then running on the crunchy dried leaves up the side of the house, tripping our motion activated lights! It was shortly after midnight and this person sounded like they were running for their life! He didn't care at all about the noise he was making, he was just flat-out running!

Of course we both leaped up, I grabbed my big Mag-light and got our lights turned on. Both kids were fast asleep still and I couldn't see anything through the windows. I called 911 (got a busy message at first, for about 20 seconds) and reported what I heard, but I didn't think there was anyone still out there. They wanted to send the police over which was fine by me.

I kinda wanted to go outside and check around, but then we started thinking that the "guy" might be hiding on our property! That was a creepy thought. We decided just to wait for the cops. It took them 1 hour and 20 minutes to arrive, and at first they went to the wrong address (confusion over "place" vs. "street")!

I related my story and we walked around the messy backyard but nothing was really amiss (actually everything was amiss, but not unusually so). They said there had been a drunken fight earlier that evening, and one person had run away, but they already caught him. They think it was him.

A few days later, I got a call at work from Emily saying she heard someone walking on the side of the house! She was home alone and about to leave to pick up the kids from school. I told her to call the police and I called my buddy Gary, who lives close by and happened to be home that day and asked him to check on Emily. They both were there pretty quickly but no sign of anyone. The police asked the neighbors if they heard anything and nothing turned up. Later, our neighbors came over and said that they just discovered their son had lost something over the wall, and he had come over to get it without telling anyone! Whew!

Maybe a week after that, at 3:15 am Bradley and I are both awakened up by a loud crashing noise, like a shelf collapsing outside. Bradley and I are in different rooms and he was understandably scared. The first thing I noticed was that none of my motion lights were on, and I didn't hear any "human" sounds like voices or running. I went around the house with my flashlight, looked around inside, searched and searched, and never did find out what the source of that noise was. I didn't really sleep the rest of that night but even in the morning sunlight, I couldn't determine what, if anything, had fallen. I suspect it was something in my neighbor's home or yard.

All of this has us a little jumpy! I have installed motion lights all around the house and in the garage, and we are thinking more about security. It might be time to get that dog we've always wanted among other enhancements.

So a word to the wise, no late night surprise parties please!

Peace, Love and Security,

Rich