False Alarm

Friday evening was lots of fun. We went to a dinner party at a friend’s house, and six of us drank and ate lovely food, and had a great time. The evening was a success, and we made our way home at about 11:30 p.m.

My youngest was almost asleep, and my oldest daughter was out for the evening, and I made my way up the stairs and fell into bed at about midnight. My wife was guilty about leaving Max, the Wonder dog, in the crate all evening, as the kids were out. Therefore she put him unto bed with me. I protested, snuggled with him for a bit and fell asleep.

At 1:19 a.m., ADT called to tell me an alarm at my school, a back door had been opened, and asked if I wanted to meet the police there.

I wanted to sleep, however, to be fair, I can’t assume it’s a false alarm, and forget it. Too much is at stake. While there is little or nothing to steal, I fear vandalism, or even having to replace aging computers that may or may not be completely backed up as they should be. Mine sure isn’t, and I was out today looking at portable hard drives.

I pulled on some jeans and a shirt, a sweater and a coat, as it was cold and had been raining, and drove to school to meet the police.

About every 18 months to two years, an alarm goes off. Twice in the past ten years that I’ve been here, it’s been an actual break in. We’ve had birds, bats and recently a falling wire set off the alarm. However, nothing ever sets off an alarm at six p.m., it always happens in the middle of the night!

This time, after touring two very nice police officers through the building, we all agreed no one could possibly get in or out of the building and it was a false alarm. Given the wind and rain that evening, it is possible that the door sensor malfunctioned. It did not go off again this weekend so I think it was a one time event.

I sure hope so. I get tired running around the place looking for burglars!