The Day the Cops Came

We woke up to a blizzard this morning.  It has hardly snowed all winter (which I have LOVED) but decided to dump on the ONE day I HAVE to go somewhere.  So I was a bit anxious about having to drive in the snow.  I decided to go out and grab our garbage can off the street so if the snow plow came through it would get all of the road.  I had just gotten out of the shower and blow dried my hair and plugged in my straightening iron.  I grabbed my coat and shoes and Zoey was watching Frozen while I was getting ready.  She followed me to the door and I had the same thought twice, "I hope she doesn't lock me out..."  She had just learned how to turn the buttons on the lock in her room but silly me, I thought everything would be ok.  I shut the door behind me so she didn't follow me out into the snow and dragged the garbage can back in.  Then I went to go back inside.  Locked.  She was standing right there so I kept talking to her and telling her to turn the button back and to play with the door and I was praying REALLY hard.  After a few seconds I heard her yell, "OLAF!" and run away.  I stood there kind of chuckling and praying to Heavenly Father to help me figure out the situation.  I got concerned after a few minutes realizing she wasn't coming back, she didn't know how to turn the button back and I had no keys, no phone and nothing on me to pick the lock.  I kind of started to panic/cry at this time.

The slight damage done by the knife
the police officer used.

Right then this older gentleman comes snow blowing the sidewalk.  I flag him down but he has no credit card, no idea how to break in and I think he thought I was crazy.  So I go across the street to see if I can use their phone.  Not home.  I go next door since both their cars are home, no answer.  The neighbor next to them was out shoveling and he was kind enough to let me go in and use their phone. I call Dallin's cell phone and office phone - no answer.  So I call my mom who kind of chuckles and said she had a dream about Zoey locking me out last night.   I tell her to keep trying to call Dallin to see if we could get his key and she looked up the police's phone number.  So then I call the police.  I was on hold for a bit since they said they were experiencing a higher number of phone calls, no doubt due to the blizzard.  They said they'd send someone as soon as they could.  At this point I figured it'd be hours and I would see who would get there first, Dallin or the police.  So I went back to the house to wait for who knows how long and keep in contact with Zoey to make sure she wasn't touching my flat iron or burning the house down. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the officer showed up faster than I anticipated.  I was really stressed because at this point I was nearing the time I needed to leave for my appointment and I was stranded outside.  He told me he'd never been on a call like this (I can only imagine the stories he'll tell his family tonight!) and he couldn't pop a window open, jimmy the door open with a credit card and even called for backup to bring him some paper clips to pick the lock.  We kept contact with Zoey, who was giving us the play-by-play of the movie so we didn't feel the need to kick the door in.  Especially since it would damage the property and I don't want to have to replace that door right now.  He even tried to entice her with candy which I thought was strange and luckily didn't work.  I kept trying to tell her Olaf and Frosty were outside and to come to the door, no luck with that one either.  He let me borrow his phone and my mom was braving the treacherous roads to meet Dallin somewhere downtown to get the key then make her way to me.  In the process, as Dallin was leaving the parking garage, the lady in front of him got stuck so he had to help push her out of the garage and so it was taking him extra long - just my luck.

I got the call that my mom was on her way from downtown and the policeman had been really unsuccessful but they told me it's probably be 45 minutes for her to get there given the conditions.  As Officer Sheldon was picking the lock with the paperclips he was using this big knife too and I thought for sure he was going to cut his finger off.  As we waited for my mom he actually used the knife to kind of get into the plate and get the lock button to release and we were in!  I asked if I could give him a hug.  I ran in and found Zoey hiding in the corner of the living room.  Her movie had ended and she'd been hollering for mom for the past few minutes.  I told her to thank Officer Sheldon and she was super shy and whispered goodbye.  Afterward she was so excited to talk about the police officer.

I am so grateful to those who are here to help and willing to when a mom has a spastic moment and is in a panic.  My mom arrived shortly thereafter and in the process all the roads got plowed so I was only 10 minutes late to my appointment.  My mom even went and made extra copies of our keys to avoid this in the future - something we've talked about doing but just never have.

I laughed a lot to keep from crying.    My sweet neighbor brought us cookies that afternoon and asked what had happened.  I guess the whole neighborhood had been calling her asking what was going on.  We were quite the show!

The receptionists at my appointment told me I made their day and since all their kids are grown, it is really a hysterical situation to them and they hope I laugh someday too.  I'm sure I will.  Someday...