Originally Posted By RoadTrip We came home about 8:00 PM this evening after shopping and going out to dinner after work. We were shocked when we pulled into our driveway and saw that the front door was wide open. I'm not talking about unlocked; the main door was WIDE OPEN (although the screen door was shut but unlocked). We walk in and it doesn't make any sense. My hand-held computer is sitting on the table in our entryway, as are the keys for my Charger which was sitting in the driveway. We go into our office which is on the same floor as the entry and both computers are still there. We check places on the other floors where we have valuable financial information and some modestly expensive jewelry. Nothing is out of place. We called both our daughter and son to see if perhaps they stopped by while we were gone... both have keys to our house. Neither one had. A few minutes after talking to our son he called back and said we should for sure go together around the house and check out every room, every closet and every hidey-hole to make sure that no one was in our house. We did and the house was clean as a whistle. I thought about it and decided what must have happened. We were taking my wife's car to work today but my sunglasses were in my car. The Charger was parked in the driveway so I went out the front door to get my sunglasses. I'm sure I figured I would come back in through the front door, shut it and lock it and then use the pass-through door into the garage where my wife's car was parked. Instead I must have spaced out (what do you expect, it was early!) and walked in though the open garage door to get in my wife's car and totally forgot about needing to close our front door. We felt fairly confident about that scenario and went down the block to our neighborhood block-party for National Night Out. After about 15 minutes there we see a police car pulling into our driveway. My wife went back to the house to check out the situation. It seems that our 30-year-old son had gotten worried about us not calling him back after checking out the house. He had called the local Police Department and asked them to stop by our house and said he was getting in his car to drive there and should be there soon. Sure as heck, about five minutes after the Police were in our driveway so was our son. My wife explained the situation to the policeman and remarked that she was glad we seemed to live in a very safe area. He said that we did, and that he was fine coming out to check on our house even if it was a false alarm. Our son was not quite as understanding. He gave his mom the what-for about not calling back after checking out the house. She reminded him how many times he had left us worried and uncertain while he was growing up, and figured we were just starting to even the score. So all is well that ends well. It is also really nice to see that a son we had real challenges with while he was growing up ends up having that much love and concern for his parents. That love had become pretty apparent over the past five years or so, but it was nice to see an obvious example of it once again. Don’t you just love happy endings?
Originally Posted By hopemax In 1991, we took a road trip (haha) back to visit my Grandma. On the way, we spent the night in Colby, Kansas. My Mom had a cousin that lived there, and they said if we passed through to come on over. So we get there about 4 PM on a Sunday. Front door is open, tv is on, but no one comes to the door. My Mom went around back, radio was playing in the kitchen, and that door was open too. Since we couldn't find anyone, we went to our hotel to check in. My Mom called, and left a message that we were in town. A couple hours later, we get a call..they had been at the park. The open doors and everything, is just how things were done. I wonder if things like that are still the norm, or if the bigger city woes have invaded small towns now too.
Originally Posted By lilgoofymom Yay! for happy endings. I have done that before. I have taken my daughter to school and came home to find our front door standing wide open. Thankfully, as had happened for you, I had just mistakenly left it open in my hurry. Our neighborhood is not as secure a place for that to happen. Years ago, a teenage neighbor got off the bus and found her door open. She ran to a neighbor's house and called for help. Thank God she did, the thieves were still in the house when the Police got there. There is no telling what would have happened to her if she had went in with them.
Originally Posted By Tinkeroon Gives me goosebumps to think what COULD have happened...it's a scary world out there now. Similar thing happened with us one Christmas morning when I got up. The front door was WIDE open. Nothing missing though. Don't know if we interrupted anyone or if the door just didn't close all the way the night before (though we are sticklers for double checking) or what happened but by God's grace all was well.
Originally Posted By SuperDry This reminds me of a story told to me by my parents of something that happened when I was little and too young to remember myself. The family went on vacation for a week during the summer, and we of course told our neighbors so they could look after the house (pick up the newspaper and that sort of thing). One morning, the neighbors wake up and see an unfamiliar car parked in our driveway. They know we're out of town, and know that it's not our car. So, they call the police. A few patrol cars and officers show up, and they treated it as a "burglary in progress" situation. They have their sidearms and shotguns drawn, and are fanning out to surround and search our house. About this time, another neighbor sees all the commotion and comes out and asks what's going on. They explain it to him, and he says "Well, that's MY car!" We lived in a city that does not permit parking on the street overnight, and the neighbor thought that he could use our driveway as a convenient "extra" parking space. The cops weren't too pleased with this, but of course everything turned out okay in the end.
Originally Posted By murfsmom years ago, my father in law woke up and walked into the living room to find the double front doors wide open, the sliding doors all open ( they were the length of the house because of the view ) he ran back to the bedroom and woke up his wife and they noticed her jewelry box was gone, along with his wallet, rings, watch and etc, the police came and detectives and said they were sure every thing was left open because the who ever broke in used gas to make them sleep and they should feel very luckey they didn't wake up because they could have been killed ! a week later 2 houses down, the man woke up hearing a noise and went to the living room only to be shot to death !! turns ot when they caught the 2 guys, they confessed to to gassing my in laws and some others in the neighborhood !!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Yikes!!! Scary... glad it turned out OK for your in-laws; how horrible for the other man.
Originally Posted By debtee Pleased to hear everything is ok for your roadtrip and that your son can finally see your point of view of what he did to you while growing up! LOL OMG that story about the gassing and shooting gave me the creeps, thank goodness your in laws did not wake up during the robbery murfsmom!
Originally Posted By murfsmom were all very thankful they were ok, i'm sorry i didn't mean to upset anyone, i just wanted point out how desperate people can be and how far they will go !! what happened to the good old days when you could leave your doors unlocked and even keys in the car ??
Originally Posted By chickendumpling Whoa. I am so glad to hear things turned out okay for you Trippy. That is such a scary feeling to come home to! And yes, I DO love happy endings! Tragically, however, I know of a man who decided to enter his home when found the door open. He startled the burglar, the burglar panicked and shot him. Be careful out there!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip << i'm sorry i didn't mean to upset anyone, i just wanted point out how desperate people can be and how far they will go !! >> That's fine. That is basically what our son told us... he said we live out in an area where we think nothing will ever happen, but that he's seen it happen to friends of his and that it can happen anywhere. I guess it probably can, although I still kind of prefer to believe that we are pretty safe where we are. At least statistically we are. Of course sometimes YOU are one of the few it happens to. I try to ignore that. Which may be rather foolish. But I prefer to live without fear. I live where I think I can do that without much chance of harm. If I prove to be one of the statistics because I wasn’t quite careful enough, I guess I’m OK with that. I hate the thought of living in fear. That is probably what bothers me so much about everything from 9/11 to the recent bridge collapse on I-35W. I like living without fear, and don’t really intend to start now. Even if it kills me.
Originally Posted By avromark It just shows you, sometimes you luck out, sometimes you don't. I really detest how people think they can just waltz into someones home (sense of security) and destroy a life. Glad that you were ok trippster, however I would much rather see your stuff missing then you or your wife harmed. Not that it ever justifies stealing. But given the choice, take stuff not peoples lives.
