Rude Awakening

The state of being sound asleep, and the darkness of the middle of the night, was suddenly interrupted by our dog barking ferociously and running downstairs. My husband and I in our sleepy states, both flew out of bed, without really knowing what we were doing until we reached the bottom of the stairs. Our dog was still barking up a storm and growling, as she stood at the front door. I peered through our blinds on the big front window and thought I saw a light, but was not sure as the blinds distorted things. My husband stood by the door, still mostly asleep. I went over to a little window and looked out and saw someone standing in the middle of our yard, waving a flashlight across the grass, as if they were looking for night crawlers or something, but it was much too cold for that activity in the early morning hours this morning. I went down on my knees, and was heading to a phone, as I reported to my husband what was going on in our front yard. He flicked on all our the outside lights and opened the door. Personally, I would have opened the door, then flicked on the lights just to try to see who it was before startling them, but we think different in that area. I am trying to hear the conversation in case I need to call the police, and though I cannot make out what they are saying, I could tell the tone was not a threatening one. My husband came back in for a moment to get some shoes on and said it was the police. Seems one of our neighbors had already called him in as a prowler in our neighborhood, and I had about done the same. The officer was laughing about it, at least.

My husband came back in and reported that they had caught someone a couple blocks away with a lot of stolen goods, and they think he had run through our yard, and they were trying to get conclusive evidence. The officer thought there was some incriminating evidence on one of our vehicles so was attending to that as well.

I am not sure what it is about our house, but seems those running from the law love to hit our yard. This is the fourth time in two years we have been woke up because a police officer is chasing someone through our yard, or looking for someone in our yard. I wonder if it's because we live on a corner, or what is so attractive about it, because we certainly don't have any trees to hide behind or under. I told my husband as we climbed back in bed that I am either moving or building a ten foot cement fence around our entire place. At our last place we lived, we were there for 17 years and I only remember being woke up by the police once. It may be a difference in police forces, or it may just be our new place is an attractant for criminals. However, at our last place, we had two well known meth houses on our block, but very little police activity. We also had a yard full of trees and bushes that would have made great hiding places. I am not aware of any meth houses in our little suburbia one block radius in our neighborhood. However, we are at the back of the subdivision, without many homes in two directions so maybe that is why we have become a favorite place for criminals who are breaking into cars and garages. I don't know, but after the last incidence in August where several cars were burglarized, gas stolen, and garages broken in to, many in the neighborhood spoke of starting a watch program. It kind of fell to the side as summer wound down and kids were going back to school, but after our neighborhood was hit again last night, maybe it's worth bring up again and putting in place. It's very unnerving to know that all of our property and belongings continue to be violated by someone. It's even more worrisome to know that there are several small kids in this one block radius.

It took awhile to calm myself back down as I laid and watched the clock turn to 2:30 am. I wondered if someone was in our fenced backyard hiding, or if anything we had outside had been stolen by someone who invaded our property. Were our cars safe? Were we safe? I started to pray for peace and protection, and drifted back to sleep. I cannot say I feel 100% safe but I am thankful for the police officer who visits our home often in the middle of the night, to know he is out trying his best to protect us and our neighbors.