False Alarm

Golly. I hope your Tuesday evening was more peaceful than mine! I usually avoid posting long stories on here, but I'm sharing this one.

So, last night after work I got home and put on comfy clothes and headed straight for the couch. For some reason, I was exhausted and really wanted a nap! I don't normally do that, but I couldn't resist. Keith came home from lab about an hour later. He had gotten his hands on some Grizzlies tickets and decided he was gonna go. He asked me about 100 times if I wanted to go, too, but I was so snuggled and warm that I didn't want to move. Not to mention, I already had slipped into the comfy sleep pants and long t-shirt! So, he decides to take his little brother, Ryan. I'm happy for him and happy to be staying behind. As he walked out the door, I asked that he set our alarm before he left. Then, I was back to dream land.

Around 8:00, I sat up and watched a little TV, still half-awake. A short time later, I decided I should probably eat something for dinner. So, I managed to get up and head towards the kitchen. All the sudden, our house alarm when off sending me into panic mode. It was such a loud siren, my heart just nearly came out of my chest. I reacted by running into the back of the house where our bedroom was. Keith keeps a gun in his nightstand. I got back there and opened his draw and saw it sitting in there. Then it hit me- I've never even picked it up and have no clue how to use it or protect myself against this "intruder," so I leave it there. Ugh...I am feeling 100% fear at this point.

The sirens were still going off. Loud. Crazy. Panicking, I knew I should call somebody. Call the police! Ooops, I have no phone back here, it's still in the living room! (Side note: our alarm system isn't connected to the security company or the police. We received it as a wedding present from a friend of my in-laws, and just never had it connected. We would have had to install a phone line and pay for the monthly service. And, we felt like the siren would scare off anybody that broke in anyway.)

Then, another thought crossed my mind, there is a motion detector in the living room and I was the one that probably set it off. Maybe Keith punched the code in differently and enabled the sensor or something. So, I managed to practically crawl out from under the bed and go turn off the craziness. Even though I thought I knew what caused it, I was still really freaked. I was pretty shaken!

I called Keith and asked him how he set the alarm when he left. He said he did it just like he always does. But, he and I set it every night and then move around the house without a problem. So, something must be going on. By this point, I'm crying and unable to calm down. Even though I'm pretty sure there's no creeper in my house coming for me, I still don't feel better. My sweet husband called his dad from another phone (so that he wouldn't have to hang up with me) and asked him to drive over to our house and check on things. The more I thought about it, the more scared I felt. I just cried and cried and covered my head with a blanket in the back room waiting for Mr. Bob to get there! Yes, I'm a sissy little girl that gets freaked out pretty easily. Plus, I hate being home alone at night!

Long story short, after calling the family friend that installed the system, we learned how these smart, smart security systems work.
So, at night, when we put in the code, the system beeps for about a minute to allow you to leave if you're going to. If no doors are opened during that time, it tells the system that people are still home and are going to be moving around.
However, if we punch the code in, and leave during that beeping time (i.e. open any doors), it tells the system that the homeowner has left and therefore, sets the motion detectors on.

So, Keith had put the code in and left to go to the game. And when I got up off the couch, my system said "INTRUDER!!!!!! ALERT! ALERT!" Lesson learned the hard way, huh?

Ok, so maybe it's not that exciting of a story. But, let me tell you, I was really scared! I felt much better once I knew how it happened and once my hubby was finally home.