January 1, 2005
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My brother came over this afternoon wanting my house key. He was going to Home Depot to get a new lock for the back door. Instead, I got him to stay here and help me move my desk across the room, away from the window. I miss looking out at the yard, but I feel protected, behind the brick where Doug can’t see me.
I want to thank you all for your advice. I would never have called the police if you hadn’t suggested it. I couldn’t believe what the woman officer’s response was. She suggested the reason he’d been watching me was to make sure I was okay. You know, a woman alone.
I didn’t know what to say. She finally broke the silence:
“Hello”?
I say, “Yeah, I’m here”
“Oh, I thought I’d lost the connection.”
“No,” I said. “I was thinking. He was either trying to get me upstairs, to the bedroom, or he was wanting an excuse to use the bathroom up there, to get into my medicine cabinet, or maybe he thought I had jewelry, but he definitely wasn’t looking out for my safety. I know you probably can’t tell me if he has prior arrests, but – And I don’t know if this is his last name, because it’s his step dad, but could you look up the name Doug T……….”
She says, and I can tell she’s looking him up, “That’s right, I can’t give you that kind of information, but I will tell you that I have nothing on him, so you might want to get back to me with another last name.”
I hang up and call my brother to tell him to call his neighbor and get the name.
Comments (6)
Good luck. What a terrible situation. Oh, and happy new year.
i’m glad you were pro-active! i was thinking… you know those shower rods that you can put in any size bathroom? they have springs inside? maybe you could put those inside the window frames and hang tab-top curtains? may your new year bring you peace and a sense of safety!
I hope this day brings with it some answers to your uneasy situation.
It saddens me that you actually had to move your desk away from the
window.
It angers me that in order to get some sort of protection there must be
a crime…
I wish you well for this is most disturbing.
((((HUGS))))
Figures, huh. After we were broken into, I called the Police Dept & made an appointment with, I can’t remember, some division that offers advice on how to prevent burglaries. Anyway, two cop guys came, cased the joint, then told us that an alarm would give a b & e 20 minutes to get in and out with stuff before the police could get there – and that’s at a minimum (in a busy downtown area it was more like a 4 hour wait). Also, if there were “x” no. of false alarms, my kids were babies at the time & it was conceivable I could forget to turn off the alarm when coming in from the garage, etc., the police simply would stop responding. Since there was only one door – a basement patio door, leading out onto a deck – that was vulnerable – and which was broken – it was safety glass too – they recommended hardware if we could afford it. So we spent nearly $2000. on a solid steel gate… it looked so New York. And I felt very safe from then on. So that’s my little story on how the Police Dept helped me figure out the best solution to prevent break-ins… neighbours over the years were broken into, too, but we never were again. And finding out the last name of the guy stalking you, and getting calls to the Police dept. on record about it, that’s good too.
Gaaaaaah! At least you aren’t just sitting there…waiting….
This is a tough situation. No matter what is in the guy’s head, good, bad or indifferent, you are going to stress over it and may see things worse than they are because the kind of person he is freaks normal people out. I don’t know what to say to you except that its good you are taking action and not being passive.