Yesterday, we had a church dinner. When we drove up, my kids were whining (I guess high school kids still whine) about how much homework they have to do. I was too late for Mass and too early for the potluck, so I gave in. Not something I usually do, by the way.
It turns out that it was a good thing I went home. I was planning on dropping the kids at the gate and driving back down, but when we got to the gate, there was a man standing there in the mostly dark of a 6:15 October evening. He was looking down toward our darkened house. When I drove into the driveway, he moved slightly to the side of our driveway to be equal to my window.
I rolled down the window and asked him if I could help him. I wasn't speaking a friendly tone, though, because I just felt afraid. I don't know why.
"I am just standing here, Alo-a," he said. I think he meant "Aloha."
"No, you're trespassing, and you need to move along," I replied, making a shoo-ing gesture.
"Aloa," he said, a little more insistently. I just shook my head and had my daughter wait until he left to open the gate. If he thought saying his version of "Aloha" was designed to be peaceable, he was sadly mistaken - first of all, it was really badly mispronounced and second of all - you think standing in someone's driveway looking to see if anyone is home in the dark shows Aloha? Yeah, I don't think so, Bub.
Of course, I drove down the drive way, instead of letting them walk down, and I stayed a bit, too, because I was afraid he didn't go far and I didn't want him to see me leaving. I turned on every light on the second floor - the ones visible from the street. When I drove out to meet my husband at the church, I looked carefully to see that the guy wasn't hiding in the bushes across the street or standing where he could see me leave.
I am not sure why that freaked me out as much as it did. I just got a bad vibe.
2 comments:
I just said a quick prayer to ask God's protection for you and your family. You most certainly were being "cased", and the risk remains very high. You might want to call the PD and give them the details. A good description of the "perp" could help them spot him elsewhere, maybe even solve a case. I too am in the boonies, so we have to watch for exactly the scenario you described. And yes, we are allowed to have personal protection. It hopefully is never needed, but when law enforcement has a response time upwards of a half hour, it is prudent to be prepared. No matter what, teach everyone at home to lock the doors, latch the windows, and look before opening the door if someone knocks when you aren't expecting visitors. Every 14 seconds, a break-in happens in our country. Trust your gut feelings EVERY time. You are equipped with a mom's radar, so trust in it, always. Let your neighbors know what you saw; they may have seen the guy, too. If you haven't already posted No Trespassing signs, do it now. Sorry to say, but true aloha has faded a lot.
Fortunately, my husband works at home. They guy will have a surprise should he walk down the driveway - big dogs and a man at home. We are thinking about putting cameras out at the gate. You can't really see the gate from the house - and if we put cameras, we'll post signs that there are cameras. We already had someone drive through our fence - lost part of their bumper and their license plate, the losers - but it was a bummer to have to fix the fence.
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