The Wrong Call for the Right Reasons

Yesterday, the alarm company called: again, the alarm at my nearby friend's house had activated. Should the alarm company dispatch the police? I hesitated, reviewed the history of false alarms, noted that it was only 4:15 pm and my friend was an hour over-due at my house to pick up her dog, and made a judgment call: no, I'll go to her home and check it out because she should be there any minute.

For the first time since she moved into her home in 2002, I could NOT find her housekeys, but I decided to check it out anyway. When I arrived at her home, there were 2 black males in front of it, one of whom was talking on his phone. Next door, another handful of black males congregated in the garage area. No one was doing anything, but I got out of the car and walked around the front -- and then again tried to call my friend who never ever answers her damned cell phone nor tells me when she's going to be late picking up her dog. Some days, she goes directly home as she has migraines all the time, then calls me whenever she wakes up to apologize for leaving her dog until whenever when I expected her no later than 3:30. Perhaps she was inside her home and had triggered the motion sensor herself: not probable, but possible.

I almost called the police, just in case, but the last time flashed through my mind: the police arriving ahead of me, far too many police for an alarm response. When I identified myself and said that I had the key, they politely invited me to unlock the front door and go inside with them. That was when I was shown that the back door was wide open and the police had already been inside. There was blood on the back door, a trail of blood leading to the front door, blood on the front curtain and front door -- but no one seemed concerned. When I questioned the lack of give-a-shit by the police, they told me the rest of their story, which is when I told them it was time for them to leave. I secured the home, reset the alarm, and left them standing around in the front yard.

This time, I guess I should have let the police arrive to handle the call as the back French doors had been completely kicked in! I finally was able to get my friend on her cellphone after waiting in front of her home for about 15 minutes, but had to wait for her to arrive and unlock the front door before we knew this time was not another false alarm.

I'm sorry I didn't let the police handle the call, but based on my past experience that didn't seem the way to go. I didn't have her keys, although I've always had her keys, so I probably got more in the way than I did any good. Lesson learned, and no, I don't want a replacement set of keys.