Cops and Robbers

So as I am picking up Ethan and Seth from Jana's house today we both notice a police car in front of my next door neighbor's house. Jana then sees the cop coming out of her house. We are both concerned, so I quickly drive home and ask the policewoman if anything is wrong. She says are you here at 31? Oh, great it's me. I say "yes", glance through my garage window, and notice the service door open inside the garage. Fabulous. She informed me of the alarm being triggered as I am opening my garage door and scanning the floor for some items that might have gotten stolen had someone broken in. They are still there so I'm not quite so concerned. The policewoman then tells me she is waiting for another officer to arrive so they can sweep the house together before I can go in with the kids. For our safety, she says. Of course, "But can I just run in and see if my computer is still there?" I ask. "No," she says.

As we're waiting she proceeds to explain that she surveyed the perimeter. "You have a beautiful backyard," she says. "And I love your craft room." So now I start to panic, and not about my computer. The police officers are going to go through my entire house. Remember the garden, this morning? Yeah, well Marshall left with the girls at 10:10, I jumped in the shower and was out the door by 10:25. So my house is not in the greatest shape. Oh, lovely.

Now I'm remembering my friend Judy Camp who told me she always leaves her house clean when she goes on vacation because one time her house flooded and the entire neighborhood had gone through her house by the time she got back. I think because of Judy, I'm pretty good about cleaning before I go out of town, but today was different.

The policewoman, Maryann is her name, then tells me about a real daytime robbery that happened recently and that's why she's being overly cautious. But then she explains that the alarm on the door to the house hadn't been triggered (I think she said this earlier, but it didn't register with me) so it's probably safe, we just need to be sure. Now I'm really not worried. So I begin asking the policewoman if I can just go in with her. I tell her I would love to play pretend policewoman (as I hold up my hands in the shape of a gun). She says, "Yeah, you can have the taser." Sounds good to me, but unfortunately she's not serious.

Finally the other two, yes TWO, officers arrive. Now, I'm really feeling totally embarrassed because I know they have much better things to do. This is truly a waste of time for them. But now it gets exciting. I actually got to follow them in the garage door because I had to shut off the alarm. They all drew their guns and went in shouting "GILBERT POLICE" and I'm pretty sure it was followed by a "COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" They first checked the coat closet and I knew this was going to take a few minutes. So now all I can think about is all the things I was in the middle of when I left this morning and how they are going to see my messy bedroom and everything else. Oh, well.

When they came out they asked if I could make them waffles later on (yes, my waffle maker was still out from the morning) - they would bring more strawberries if I was out. Of course everything was fine, and luckily the kids had fun playing in the car.

I was so embarrassed they had to go through this whole scenario, and grateful that nothing serious happened, that I didn't even give my husband a hard time for leaving the service door unlocked and apparently slightly ajar for the wind to blow it open.