That little crap-hole was only about 600 square feet. And at one time, we had two people, two cats, two dogs, and six puppies that little crackerjack house. Good times.
Anyway, fast forward to buying our current house and moving to a little suburb of Cleveland, that fear hasn't went away. In fact, it has grown exponentially due to the fact that our house now is a lot nicer than our little crap-hole in Jersey. And in my mind, if I was a bad-guy and wanted to break into a house, I would pick a house just like mine (paranoid much?). The Scientist goes away quite often, so I usually lose sleep while he is away, jumping at every little noise in the middle of the night.
This was taken when we first moved in -- we have since added an iron scroll security/screen door, which was the only thing between me and the crazed bell-ringer.
Okay, now fast forward to last Friday night, the Scientist was working super late to get his talk ready for his conference that he was leaving for on Sunday morning. I brought the kids upstairs and we were all sleeping in my king-size bed. I'm suddenly awakened by a ring of our door bell and Munk started going C-R-A-Z-Y barking at the top of our stairs. His barking startled Finn who woke up and started crying. I glanced at the clock while I soothed her and told her to lay back down, 11:01pm! What the hell? -- and the door bell rang again. Munk raced downstairs, barking hysterically along the way. I stood at the top of the stairs for a moment with Munk going crazy downstairs, hoping that the dog would scare away whoever was at the door. But the bell rang again. I started down the stairs, but realized that I didn't have proper clothes on to have some stranger see me. I run back up the stairs and throw on some pants, meanwhile the door-bell is now ringing constantly. Whoever was at the door was now going wild with our doorbell, which meant that my dog was going WILD (sidebar: Munk could be standing with me at the front door and if I rang the bell, he would go crazy. Now imagine a stranger at the door, constantly ringing the bell!).
This was where I was standing when the crazy bell-ringer was at my door, only it was dark outside.
This is the front room of the house It's taken from the kitchen doorway (which looks just like the one on the upper left) and there are babygates on both sides to keep the kids from falling down the tiled stairs.
So I get downstairs and my heart is pumping out of me chest. I left the kitchen lights on for the Scientist and the front door was still open (with the screen door locked). There was a guy standing at my front door and Munk was standing at the baby-gate barking and barking and barking. The guy was young -- maybe in his early twenties and he was trying to tell me that I stole his cell phone. Two things now -- I was in a deep sleep when this all started and my paranoia was getting the best of me, so I was utterly confused at this point. I started to open the babygate, so I could go down into the front room to talk with him (instead of him yelling over my barking dog and the 25 feet distance). But then I realized that this all sounded so fishy, that I thought if I went down the stairs, I would have to lock Munk behind the babygate to save him from jumping on the security door, clawing to get to the stranger. So I stayed put -- putting the lock security door and a babygate between me and this guy. He asked me if I was on East 4th (which is a street that has a lot of restaurants/bars on it) that night, because it says that his cell phone is here. He was a valet and his cell phone was here, that some older lady took it. I was so confused and totally thought that he was trying to break into my house because while I am older, I wouldn't classify myself as an older lady. I thought that it all sounded SO crazy that he was trying to find out if I was there alone, so he could break through our security door and come in and get me.
I repeatedly told him that I didn't have his phone, that I had babies upstairs that were sleeping and that I was home all night with them, not on East 4th. After about 5 minutes of trying to talk over a barking dog, he finally turned around to leave. I watched as he walked down the steps and around our house to the back (which is bordered by the neighbor's driveway). I watched him from the darkness of my living room as he got into his car (which was parked on the neighbor's driveway) and watched him slowly back out. He drove down the street and turned in front of our house (we are located on the corner) and he slowly drove by the front of our house. I went back into the kitchen and out the side door, creeping in the darkness to see if he had pulled into our other neighbor's driveway to find his phone. They have girls that are young that I could see at East 4th on a Friday night. When I got to the garage to peek around, I saw his car slowly creeping past our house again going in the opposite direction!
So I ran into the house and called the Scientist, asking him when he was getting home because there was this weird guy that keeps driving past our house. He was about 5 minutes away and he stayed on the phone with me while the guy actually pulled into our driveway and just sat there. The guy pulled out of our driveway as the Scientist was driving down our road. When he finally got home, the car slowly drove by again. The Scientist went out into the road to talk to the guy. It turns out that the guy was a valet and his phone had dropped out of his pocket into a car he was parking. He used the "find my iphone" app and the app told him that the phone was at our address. As the Scientist questioned him more, the guy told us the make of the car, which was our neighbor's car on the backside of our house. Their driveway actually touches the back of our house, so the guy thought that the driveway was ours (I guess). He had called the police and they were on their way. We realized that the older lady was our neighbor who is actually an older lady who must have eaten on East 4th with her friends and valeted their car there. So the crazy bell-ringer wasn't really crazy afterall. But it was a great way to start the weekend that the Scientist was traveling away for me!
He left on Sunday morning and about four hours after he left, I received a really weird audio FaceTime request and when I didn't answer, they texted me. Now, that wouldn't normally make me concerned, but check out the name of this person that tried to contact me...
WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!?! PS I have no idea what "rumr" is or who Ashley is... And I don't normally get strange things requested on my phone -- twofer on Sunday, I guess.
Who chooses a name like that?!?!?!?!?!?!? Honestly! Needless to say, I'm anxiously awaiting the return of the Scientist who is scheduled to return either Tuesday evening or Wednesday afternoon.
