Is It Naptime Yet

Lately we’ve given Lilah some freedom. She can play outside and go up and down part of the street and check the mail all on her own. She loves doing this and for the most part I don’t worry. Other kids play on our block all the time, they also play in our yard and at times try to come into our house if the girls come in to get a drink. I’m pretty sure we live in a safe neighborhood, it’s just a little ghetto at the same time and there is a cultural division with us being in the minority.

Yesterday Jon gave Lilah his keys and she checked the mail. It was a big mail day since we get all the adds on Tuesday. Today Jon realized he hadn’t received his keys that held the mailbox and house key back from Lilah after she got the mail yesterday. We searched everywhere and they did not turn up. We checked the mailbox and no luck.

We think Lilah may have left them in the mailbox key hole and that some one may have taken them. Of course we’re not sure but all we know is we can’t find them in the house and the last time they were used was for the mailbox.

Losing the keys wouldn’t be such a big deal, but we think they may have been lost in a way that a person could easily find out who they belonged to, since it wasn’t like in a store or some random place, it was in our mailbox lock which if you open it has our name in it for the postal worker to see and remember us by, then just look up that name and you have an address.

So we decided we were in a vulnerable situation and should get the mail box and our house re-keyed, but I’d be at home alone with the girls and the one handling it since Jon had meetings and places to be.  While home alone I also needed a shower and someone out there possibly had our house key and could theoretically come in the house at any moment.

So I put our chain lock on before getting in a shower warned the girls that if anyone rang, knocked or appeared to be entering the house they were to come to my room, shut the door and get me out of the shower. I know the chain is more a deterrent and can easily be broken, so I figured I’d cover my bases and have us all hide in the master bath with the master bedroom locked and then with the bathroom locked too if anyone were to enter the house. I hid Jon’s machete under the bathroom sink so we could barricade ourselves in and have protection. I also had both my home phone and cell phone ready and clothes since I was in the shower.

I showered quickly and I forgo shaving my armpits just so I would get out of the shower that much sooner. It ended up being for nothing, though how bad would I feel if something had happened and I was in the middle of shaving,  not to mention any potential nicks if the girls came in at that moment telling me someone was entering the house.

I finish getting dressed and we started looking up a lock smith. We didn’t want to call just anyone in the phone book to re-key our house and with looking on-line it seemed like there were plenty of shady lock smiths, so we decided to call someone who might know a reputable locksmith. I called my sister Carolyn who’s company also deals with rentals and used a locksmith to change the locks.  I called who she recommended and he came out at noon and re-keyed the locks.

I know the possibility that the person who did find our keys would come to our house to steal our things or hurt us is small. If anything it was most likely a neighbor and someone who would have no intention of entering our house, but you never know if someone might attempt a crime of opportunity while we’re away or even while we were home.

So now we’ve spent $74 to re-key the locks and it will cost us another $40 to change the mail box lock and in the mean time our mail will be on hold.

Lilah feels bad and wants to pay us back and I feel it was partially her fault and partially mine and Jon’s since we didn’t follow up and get the keys from here.

The one thing I’ve learned is the mail key should have it’s own key chain and we need to follow up a little better with her to make sure it’s not lost.

I hated feeling so vulnerable. I was kinda a paranoid mess this morning, hence the machete under the sink, but as the day went on I felt fine.

I feel a little bad being so paranoid and a somewhat ashamed that I had so little faith in my neighbors, but I also felt so exposed, not knowing where or who might have our house keys.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Craziness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.