Thursday, February 28, 2008

Night of Terror!!!!

Okay so it wasn't that bad, but I thought the title sounded good.

Here is the burglarized story for those of you who haven't heard it yet.

Back in 2002 we lived in Nampa, ID. (Not the cream of the crop city in Idaho, but our neighborhood was actually really nice.) Anyway, at about 2 AM Halle woke up crying, so I crossed the hall to get her and heard a rumbling down the stairs on my main floor of the house. I thought it was just the ice maker in the fridge, but when I heard another noise coming from the basement I knew something was up. I thought that maybe my dog was in the laundry room eating or something.

I ran to Alyssa's room to make sure she was okay (as this was still the time when the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart was fresh in my mind) and there I noticed my GREAT watch dog sound asleep on the bed with Alyssa. That's when I knew in my gut that someone was in my house. I woke Jarom up (which is a miracle in itself, because he is the HEAVIEST sleeper in the world) and told him I thought someone was in our house.

At this time we had no means of self defense in our home. The only thing he could think of to use was the curling iron. So off he went curling iron in hand to defend his family. (It's a great joke now and now we keep a baseball bat handy. We're not gun people.) He noticed that the basement door was wide open, so he threw on the closest coat (which happened to be mine) and headed outside to see if he could see anyone.

I grabbed Halle, and called 911. They asked me if I was positive that the intruder was out of the house. I wasn't, so I then made my way to the kitchen and grabbed a butcher knife. They also said that they were sending K-9 units and to stay in the house. Well.....Jarom was outside!! So I went out and tried to yell for him, but he didn't answer. I was so afraid they were going to see him and think he was the burglar. But finally he came around the corner carrying my guitar and his laptop.

Inside my coat pocket, (which he had on) was my set of keys. About 2 years earlier I had gone to a church activity where they taught us about self defense and they gave each of us an emergency whistle to put on our key chains. (It's still on mine to this day.)

Jarom said that he saw a guy on a bike stopped in the middle of the road, digging through a bag. Jarom blew my whistle at the guy and it scared him, so he dropped the big heavy stuff (guitar and laptop) and took off. Jarom was able to give a description to the police and by the time they got to our house they already had the creep in custody.

He had another big duffel bag on him full of stuff from our garage and cars and also from other people's garages. He just must have been cruising all the unlocked garages in the neighborhood. Unfortunately that was the first and ONLY time we had ever left our garage unlocked and we learned our lesson the hard way.

This guy had a warrant out for his arrest and had been in trouble many times before for drugs. The police call him "Satan Boy" because he has "Satan" tattooed on his knuckles. (I'm so glad I didn't know that until a long while after he had been in my house.) This guy is STILL in jail because he keep breaking his probation and we still get notices about him.

Thankfully all he was after was things to sell for drug money and he wasn't out to hurt anyone. Six cop cars later and after the police finger printed our house (which was horrifying because the house was a DISASTER, how the guy didn't kill himself in the mess of the basement in the dark is still a mystery to me) and took a bunch of photos, the event was over and we went to bed. And do you know what? Not ONE of our neighbors even noticed the trauma had gone down. So if you're ever up on the middle of the night, just take a quick peek out your window to make sure your neighbors are okay.
Oh, and get a whistle on your keychain! It just might save your life one day.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my defense it was a sports coat that I would definitely call gender neutral.. :) Ironically, I had just returned home from two weeks in Canada that night. At least I made it home for this traumatic event - just barely - but I made it. :)

Jennifer Jamison said...

Man, that story never gets old! I remember you calling me the morning after it happened and I couldn't believe it. I'm just bummed you didn't grab your camera to get a shot of Jarom chasing the intruder down the street with a curling iron! :)

Camille said...

Wow! What a story! I'm glad you didn't go down in the basement to check on the "dog" by yourself. That could have been frightening! I love the picture you painted in my head of Jarom with your coat on and a curling iron in his hand! LOL

Anonymous said...

I'm with Fur. That story never gets old. I just died laughing all over again.

Jonathan & Rachel said...

I remember when that happened-it still freaks me out!!

becky ward said...

My worst nightmare! I am always afriad that I will find someone in my house and I won't be able to wake Kevin up enough to do anything about it. But...if you can wake Jarom up I might have a chance. (;

ps nice defense jarom! (:

Mama Williams said...

I remember this story...we always check the doors to make sure they are shut and locked now. We still need a bat.

Jennifer P. said...

That story never gets old. Every time I think about it--it scares me--until I think of the whistle and the curling iron--that was just funny :)! I also remember you telling me how you had popcorn spilled all over the floor and all the cushions off the couch and other things that couldn't be cleaned during Alias! Too funny :)! Sooooooo glad you guys were all ok though!

Elena said...

FUr- Jarom thought I was nuts when I clicked the shot of the cop cars out front, but aren't we all glad I did? Who knew that someday I'd be a blogger?

Camille- Hello! Yes, I am glad I didn't go down either, could have turned out nasty.

Becky- Miracles happen!

Julie- Glad I could be of assistance to your household.

Emily- Yeah, one of those stories that you think only happens to other people, not yourself.

Jennifer- Thanks for pointing out just how dirty the basement really was. You forgot that the vacuum was laying on it's side too. :) I had forgotten that it was b/c of Alias, but now I remember. That is SOOOOO funny!!

Elise said...

Holy COW, Elena! That would freak me out so bad! Ooh, what a creepy guy... man, I have the chills!

Nice that I'm home alone.