Ask me about the SWAT team at my house ...

Not a typo, yes, I said SWAT.  I can honestly say that the greater Longmont, CO police department has my vote for being great.  First, the important part.  Noone was hurt, nothing was stolen (as far as we know).

My only experience with a SWAT team (okay, how many people can say they have even had one experience with a SWAT team?  Seriously.) was when I was home visiting my parents.  Jon and I were living in Japan, Drew was a baby, Jon and Josh were out golfing, it was about dusk, Dad was tinkering in the garage, mom, baby and I in the house, and one of Dad's former "clients" showed up in a long blonde wig to catch up with Dad after having long been "on the run" years earlier.  Yes, he was crazy as hell,  Yes, Mom happened to go in the garage only to see that Dad had managed to talk the crazy man into the backyard, out of the garage, and he motioned to mom "911" when crazy person wasn't looking.  Anyhow, long story short, SWAT team ensued, crazy person was arrested and the North Ogden police department could yet again resume all of their efforts to the crazy girl that lives across the street.  Good times.

My kids go to two different schools.  Drew, the 13 year-old, goes to a charter academy across town.  Bradyn, the 8 year-old, goes to school about three blocks away within our "planned neighborhood" community.  Every day I drive across town to pick up Drew at 3:30.  I have exactly 15 minutes to get home to pick up and/or meet Bradyn at home (if he rode his bike).  I've always made it home before him, but occasionally worry there will be that "one day" I don't so I always make sure the front door is unlocked.  After all, nice SAFE neighborhood.  Uh-huh.

Tuesday afternoon I was running late, as usual, to get Drew from school.  Recognizing my time frame to get Drew from school, drive back across town, etc. being no less than a down to the minute strategic military operation, I pulled out of the garage with a fleeting thought of,  "wait, did I leave the front door open for Bradyn?"  I had this momentary internal conversation with myself about not having time to go back in the house, and it would surely be okay to leave the garage door open just this once in case Bradyn beat me home.  So, Ieft it open.

Picked up Drew from school, passed Bradyn mid-way home from school, and pulled up to the house only to notice something "wierd".  The garage door wasn't open.  I recalled the whole internal conversation I had in my head earlier, and thought, I KNOW I left that open for Bradyn, why is it down?  I pulled half way into the driveway, stopped, punched the garage door opener, garage opened, Bradyn pulled into the garage, I left the truck running, and told him to go get in the truck with his brothers for just a second.  I had this off sort of feeling something wasn't right. 

I quietly opened the door and took a step inside.  I didn't even notice Caesar (dumb dog) wasn't there to greet me like every other day on the planet.  He always hears the garage open and comes to the door to attack people with licks when they enter.  I was suddenly "overwhelmed" by this horrible feeling of darkness and fear.  In the next second, I had this "moment".  It wasn't a nudge, it wasn't a feeling, it was an actual voice in my head that said, "Get out NOW!"  I obliged, closed the door, and walked back to the truck.  I pulled out of the driveway, closed the garage door, and parked in front of the house.  I called 911 and said, "I think there's someone in my house," and then recalled all the events.

The 911 operator dispatched the police, then started asking some questions.  I had my cell phone on the speaker so Drew was listening in on the whole conversation.  "Are there any cars in your neighborhood that don't look like they belong there?"  I started scanning the street and said, "uh, no, I don't think so."  Drew piped in and said, "Mom, there's that car again!"  I looked out the door to see a red car slowly passing our house, and the two people inside staring at me in the truck talking on the cell phone.  Of course, to add to what was now feeling past wierd to fear, the people in the car staring at me, had on Halloween "scream" masks.  Of course.

"That's the second time they passed our house, Mom!"  I looked at Drew, the operator heard him, and said, "get the plate."  I got the plate, told the operator, and while she checked the plate Drew told me when I went inside the car had driven by the house really slow with two people in Halloween masks.  The operator said, "let me see if that car even has reason to be in your neighborhood."  Apparently, it didn't.  A cop car showed up, no lights, and parked a few houses down, then came to the truck window.  I got off the phone with 911, and he said, "could you park another house away for me?"  Again, I obliged.

The cop approached the side of the house, stood there for a minute, then put his hand on his gun and started getting on his "walkie talkie" thing.  Suddenly, there was one, then three, then four cop cars parking on various parts of the street without their lights on, and cops running out of the cars with a couple zipping up "SWAT" jackets on their way to the house.  The cop returned to the truck and said, "I'm going to need you to park further down the street a few houses, and can I have the garage door opener?"  Uh, okay.  I sat there with the kids and watched 6 cops surround the house, hide behind the front porch, the side of the house, the back of the house, and in front of the electrical box in the front yard with their guns drawn.  Uh, not okay.

The garage was opened and all 6 of them swarmed the house, guns drawn, and dissapeared inside.  The next thing I noticed was the red car had returned, with the two "scream" masked people, and they drove slowly past the house again.  Again, not so okay.  During all of this I called Jon, he was on his way home.  Jon got there a second after the cops had gone into the house, and got into the truck with us... me, and the three crying boys that is.  Bradyn started the water works, Caden started crying because Bradyn was crying, then Drew started crying and yelling at Bradyn to stop crying.  Not boys I would ever take into combat.

Jon and I were calming them down, waiting, and then Jon told me the whole other side of the golf course across our backyard had a road block of cops.  The cops emerged from the house, signaled us to the house, and said everything was okay.  Jon went into the house with them to check everything out, and the kids and I stayed in the car.  Apparently, someone was in the house, but they "fled" out the back.  In the time I had left the house to get Drew, then came home, there wasn't enough time for whoever to steal anything.  The red car?  According to the cop, most likely the look out car.  How did the person get out of the house and not caught? 

I left the garage door open, when the person went in to "case" the house (according to the cop), they closed the garage door.  When I got home, and opened the garage door, they were most likely still in the house, (hence sick feeling) and I had "spooked" them.  Caesar not coming to the door?  Dumb dog without a guard dog bone in his body was probably busy hanging out by the back door as the thief was escaping, probably offering him a good-bye lick and thanking him for coming by to visit.

After I called 911, and the cop arrived, he did see a "shadow" or something, called for back up, but didn't go inside the house until they all arrived.  The road block, back up getting there, etc. all took time, and apparently it was enough for the thief to escape.  The cops were amazing, fast, and thorough.  When they were talking to Jon I commented, "what a stupid thief, boy did they pick the wrong house, we don't have stashes of cash and jewels in there!"  The cop was rather serious and said, "yeah, but that's not what the take, they don't take time to rifle through your drawers, they want the quick and fast electronics, and you have alot of electronics."  They said there was evidence that some of our electronics had been "tampered" with, but from what they saw, nothing seemed obviously stolen.  Jon concurred (had the thief taken any of Jon's precious electronical devices (television, xbox, computer, etc.), Jon would have been so miffed he'd have scoured the golf course himself with his own rifle to retrieve his "stuff".

We were instructed to make sure over the next few days we didn't notice anything missing or strange, and in the future to lock all the doors AND keep the garage door closed.  We're now installing a key pad garage door opener and activating the formerly inactive alarm system already installed in the house by the previous tenants.  I've tried to chat with Caesar (dumb dog) about who was in the house, but he's not talking.  I think he has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (yes, I can joke a little bit about this now). 

The kids are still a little spooked, but okay.  and Drew now sleeps with his air soft pellet rifle next to his bed (for sure, that would inflict damage, "I'll shoot you with one o' these pellets, and they have the potential to bruise the thickest of skins!) Of course, obviously, I feel violated in what I thought was our safest of neighborhoods, but I'm comforted by the fact that various factors came into play to not make the whole situation so much worse ... the closed garage, my dumb dog's absence of a bark, the sick feeling and voice in my head that gave me a stern order to leave the house, and the police's amazingly fast response time.  The scream masks and the red car are still a little haunting in my mind, but the people in the car looked like teenage boys.  Jon and I agree this was most likely a harmless, albeit illegal, attempt at a botched robbery, and not some fatal psychotics escaped. 

Oh, the world, the world.  It makes me a little sick in the gutt to think my boys now have a real life experience with a small part of what is bad in the world.  Lock your doors, hug your kids, and SHUT your garage!