You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The doggie door.
The couple was fast asleep Tuesday night. Momma, Pappa, and 4 dogs.
Suddenly the alarm begins wailing.
It’s like a bucket of ice water on a cold morning.
The couple is shocked, disoriented.
Pappa runs to the front window. His eyes are bad and his glasses are on the night stand. He sees a fuzzy image with lights.
He can only make out a small car turning around at the end of the driveway, zipping away.
He is panting, out of breath.
“Did you see them,” he hollers to Mamma who has run to another section of the house with the pack of dogs which are now wide awake.
“No,” comes the reply.
The couple is befuddled. What just happened. Was someone in our house? Who was in our house? What did they want?
The couple calls 911 and waits for the sheriff to arrive.
Mamma and Pappa were recently burglarized over Memorial day. The thief took 2 ipads. To combat the injustice the couple purchases a new alarm system complete with surveillance.
The camera is aimed at the back door. The door has an extra-large doggie door cut into the frame. This is where Mamma and Pappa believe the Memorial day suspect entered.
While waiting for the law to arrive, the couple looks at the video and their hearts sink.
There is a murky, sinister face shown peering through the doggie door from the darkness.
The white male, perhaps in his late teens is quiet, as he reaches up to try and unlock the door. When he can’t reach the lock, he shifts his weight on the balls of his feet. That is when something bright flashes in his right hand.
It’s only for a moment, but the image is clear.
“That’s a hand gun,” the sheriff’s deputy tells me.
“We don’t know what his intentions were. Rape. Murder. We just don’t know.”
The perp eventually enters the house. Detectives say he roams through the house undetected for 9 minutes. What is he looking for. What is he doing? Why does he have a gun?
The intruder reportedly takes nothing. After 9 insane minutes, he leaves. This time he pulls open the back door and breaks the electronic seal.
The alarm goes off.
Pappa is calm as he tells me that he feels violated.
“it was frightening. Yes it was very upsetting,” he says. “I went out the next day and bought a shot-gun,” he will tell me.
The detective tells me that this is not random. Someone knows the doggie door is here and they are familiar with the neighborhood. The law man summizes it is a kid, perhaps from the neighborhood.
Pappa says his 18-year-old daughter threw a party recently.
“Maybe it was one of those kids,” he says, remaining calm.
Mamma and Pappa don’t recognize the creepy face on the video. They just want him caught.
“We didn’t know he was in the house till the alarm sounded. He could’ve shot us in the bedroom. We were sleeping.”
For the first time, he pauses, his voice filled with emotion. He feels helpless, violated.
I feel bad for the couple. The violation is ripe.
The couple talks in a hushed whisper and their dogs eye us with cynicism.
“Where were you guys when they needed you?” I shout to the panting dogs.
“They are heavy sleepers or the kid is quiet,” pappa will tell me.
I hope that someone recognizes the kid’s face. He needs to go to jail and feel what it’s like to be violated.
I am doing this story hoping to make this couple’s world a little safer.
In the meantime, they tell me they plan to lock the doggie door at night.
Meanwhile, somewhere out there, an intruder with uncertain intentions lurks.
Only he knows why he entered, why he brought a gun, what he was looking for.
Hopefully he will be caught soon.
Life’s Crazy™