Near Death Experience #1
Have you ever had an experience in life where, if something had gone just a little bit differently, you would have been dead?
The alarm system went off at work around 1:30AM this past Sunday. The system notifes various people via cell phone, and gives each person a chance to deactivate the alarm via the phone. If they do not do it, it goes onto th enxt person. I happen to be person #4 of 4, but I also happen to have been the only person in town. I didn’t hear the phone go ring, but I did hear the loud “you’ve got a voicemail” beep that followed. So I got up and heard the 4 messages telling me the alarm was going off.
I hightailed it into work, expecting it to be a false alarm (as it has been the past 40474695028 times the alarm has done this).
Only, when i got here, there was a car in the parking lot. It was NOT one that I recognized. It was parked immediately next to the building. Suspious.
I drove past it, and noticed some girly beads on the rear view mirror. Instantly I figured it must be the car owned by the girlfriend of a guy I work with who was on “phone” duty for the weekend (in this case, phone duty isn’t alarm duty but engine monitoring duty). Just to be safe, I went ahead and phoned him figuring that I should probably make sure he’s aware of what’s going on.
Sure enough, it was him. He was standing immediately inside the door I was just about ready to open.
He was also standing there with a shotgun, ready to blast whomever startled him at the wrong moment.
It was then I realized I was glad I called him first before walking through the door.
I have another one of these stories for another time. How about you? Have you ever been close to biting the bullet, so to speak?
June 1st, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Yes, something like this has happened to me before. Will blog a blog.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:44 pm
i guess someone broke in to the building, or that’s what the alarm was for? or was he going to blast the engine that quit running?
June 1st, 2006 at 3:46 pm
sorry for not explaining…
The alarm ended up being caused by one of our bay doors being blasted by the wind and it knocked the sensor out of alignment. A couple of years ago, one of our janitors ran into it with the fork truck which screwed it up. This past weekend, it just finally moved far enough away to set the thing off.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:58 pm
fuch you engine!
BANG!
June 1st, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I think I blogged about my near death experience, with the canoeing in canada with whitman.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:36 pm
I gotta wonder what you have in the building if people respond to alarms with shotguns…
June 1st, 2006 at 4:59 pm
why was he standing inside with a shotgun?
June 1st, 2006 at 5:20 pm
I suck at this story.
Because he also got a call regarding the alarm going off and came to investigate.
June 1st, 2006 at 9:08 pm
rofl, ohio is so different from chicago. If you walked around here with a shotgun the cops would shoot you.
June 2nd, 2006 at 12:41 am
Caleb… this is your friendly neighborhood reminder… UPGRADE your version of WordPress. I just committed 2.0.3 to the tree today.
June 2nd, 2006 at 7:14 am
Caleb woke me up to let me know that he was headed into work to because the alarm was going off. As he was getting ready he asked for his mag light (the closest thing we’ve got to a weapon in the house). Now Caleb’s had to head to work late at night on a handfull of occassions but never once has he taken the mag light with him. I thought this was a little odd but at 1:30 in the morning things don’t always register correctly. I distinctly remember feeling like I should have gone with him as he was leaving. I’ve never had that feeling when Caleb’s had to go into work in the middle of the night before.
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:11 am
kingtaco, that’s columbus, IN a relatively small town, especially compared to Chicago.
also, i doubt it’s illegal to walk around with a shotgun in chicago, but you’re probably right about the cops
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Maybe the first call should go to the police who are paid to go into places with shotguns.
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:58 pm
we used to do that. Our dialer would actually call the police. They have a special number just for that type of thing.
the last 2 of 2 times, the police never showed up. One time we even called them personally, and the officer never met my boss at work.
After that, I only call the police after I assess the situation.
June 5th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Now, I’ve never been accused of having the strongest sense of responsibility towards my employer, but I would never, ever, ever, go to my place of employment to check out a burglar alarm. That is work for someone with a gun who is trained and paid to put his life on teh line.