Monday, May 18, 2009

How des learned her lesson

Saturday I left work at 4pm, like a normal Saturday. I activated the alarm and stepped outside. When I turned back to lock the door, I was having an immense amount of trouble. The key would go into the lock and turn, but not turn enough to actually do any good. I tried for about 5 minutes, and Jay had to get out of the car and help me. I've never had that kind of trouble before.

We finally got it locked, however during the course of testing it out I had opened the door. Unbeknownst to me, this set off the alarm. I didn't hear anything, and the door didn't even fully open, so I brushed it off when Jay wondered about it. Then we headed a block away to the bead store. I was only going to be inside a minute, so I left my phone in the car. Now this is something that I never do, but I figured "nobody ever calls me, and if they do, they can wait 5 minutes."

Here's why I'll never do that again:
I missed 3 calls while I was inside. 2 from my boss and one from Kaitlyn, who is my coworker. The message from my boss just said a simple "this is your boss, call me back" but Kaitlyn's said "des, honey, please call me or the boss back ASAP to let us know that you're not kidnapped and / or murdered!" But I didn't hear these messages until later because as I was checking them, the phone rang again and it was Kaitlyn.

Apparently the boss had gotten a call from the alarm company. I had set the alarm at 4:11 and it had gone off at 4:12. They wanted to make sure nobody was trying to rob the store, with the dire possibility of bad things happening to me as well. I straightened it out with both Kaitlyn and the boss, and felt really stupid. Since I only live about a block away from work, the boss had me go down there to explain to the police that everything was fine. According to the alarm company, the police were dispatched. I got back there, reset the alarm (no lock problems this time) and Jay and I hung out for about 15 minutes. The police did not show. So either they showed up in the brief time while I was not there, tested everything, realized it was a false alarm, and left again before I showed, or they never showed at all. I really really hope it was the former, because what if I was being held hostage by armed gunmen, who maybe didn't decide that the cash would be enough? Assuming I was still alive, I'd be pretty damned pissed if it took the police 20 minutes to get there. Not to mention that my store is right on the corner of jurisdictions, so I should have cops from 3 cities show up to rescue me.

Thank goodness it was a false alarm, but boy did I feel like an idiot. It's no big deal setting off the alarm, as I know the other people that work here have done something similar - but the fact that I left the phone in the car and so worried everyone unnecessarily, well that was bad. I've learned my lesson. Problems with the lock? Always reset the alarm. Also: always have my phone on me. I have a little clippy pouch for it, that pouch gives me no excuse to leave it somewhere.

4 comments:

LittlePea said...

That is totally something I would have done.

super des said...

It took me 6 months before I set off the alarm - I think that's an accomplishment, right?

Anonymous said...

That is totally something I have done.

super des said...

Ok, I'm glad I'm not alone. :)

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