Intruder

I should have done what I said I was going to do on Saturday.

I have been fighting a cold and after school on Saturday I dropped some rubber stamps at Simone's house and said I was going home. Armed with my bottle of vitamin water (a get well gift from Simone) I started out for home. As I was driving I changed my mind and decided to go to the office and get a bank reconciliation done. So I jumped on the expressway, stopped and got some lunch a block away from the office and arrived in the office at 11:30am. If I come into the office on Saturday I am usually the only one here and that is how I like it because there are no distractions. No people, no phones just me and my CD player and I can produce work much faster this way. This Saturday did not turn out that way. I arrived at the office, unlocked the main door, shut off the alarm and locked the main door again. Unlocked my office and turned on the light, put my lunch and purse down on top of the desk, opened the second door to my office, walked through the conference room and left our company offices via the side door in the conference room to go to the ladies room across the hall. We often do this during the week, open the side door, manually change the lock to the unlocked position and close the door. We use the ladies room and then enter via that side door and change the lock to the locked position and it is secure from the outside. Well, as I was washing my hands I heard a door in the hallway close. Thinking this was odd since the business across the hall from our side door was closed and their door does not shut the way our door does I became suspicious that someone had just walked into our office via the side door that I had just left unlocked. I left the ladies room, walked across the hall (adrenaline pumping madly in my body) and walked through the office on guard to find an intruder. Good thing I was prepared because when I walked in the other door in my office (my office has two entrances, one near my desk and one on the other side of the room) there was a man standing in front of my desk. FREAK OUT!!!!! My heart was beating at 240 and how I pulled off the bravado that I was soon going to display I have no idea. Again, it must have been the adrenaline and the fact that I had my suspicions because if I had walked in on this guy completely unaware I would have panicked and not have kept my cool. Since he was across the room I said very loudly and with force "May I help you?", to which he responded "Where am I?", I said "Where are you, what do you mean?" "What do you want?" Here is the part that in afterthought I shouldn't have done. I walked over to my desk and looked inside my purse and saw that my wallet was still in there. I then proceeded to pick up my purse the whole time looking at this guy and telling him that he was in the wrong office. He said that he was looking for a dentist and gave me a name that I did not recognize. I told him that he had to leave and told him to follow me (follow me, I should never have turned my back on this guy, what was I thinking?) He followed me the whole time talking weirdly. He was saying something about he was mental or something, all I know is that I wanted him out of the office and in the hallway. I managed to do that, saw him walk down the hall to the directory and the elevator and then I locked the door. I looked through my wallet and everything was in there, driver's license, insurance card, credit cards, Jewel and Dominick's cards, checks were in sequence... Everything seemed to be in order except for the $2.00 that I had from my lunch. I started out the day with $8.00. My lunch cost $6.35. I remember taking the $8 from my wallet and started to give the clerk seven when I said that I had the .35 cents. I took the $2 and just stuffed them in my purse knowing that I would put them in my wallet when I got to the office. Well "Stranger Danger" took my $2.00.

So now with "Stranger Danger" out of the office I'm beginning to freak out. So who do I call? My sister Cindy, she is strong she will talk to me while I walk around the office to make sure that no one else is here. (STUPID!!!!!) Not only is that whole scenario wrong in hindsight, my sister Cindy LIVES IN CALIFORNIA!! So, stupid me is walking around the office with a pair of scissors and my cell phone with Cindy on the other end. Thankfully, no one was hiding and my sister convinced me to call the police. I got the general Morton Grove police department number from information, called and explained what had happened and my concern that this person was walking around in the building. The police arrived in about 5 minutes and I met the first officer at the front door. He asked me what happened and I told him, gave him the description of "Stranger Danger" 5'10", about 180-200lbs, white, tan down type coat, very short blondish hair, and that was about it. I couldn't remember if he had jeans or other style pants. Couldn't quite tell if he had an accent. Just that he talked like he was either mentally ill or on drugs. He just kept asking where he was. That isn't the usual demeanor of a robber but maybe he was putting on an act because I didn't seem to be upset on the outside that I found him in the office near my purse. In hindsight I know that I did quite a few things wrong and that is what is haunting me for the last two night. The fact that the second officer searched the whole office with his gun drawn is one of the haunting things. I searched with SCISSORS!! I have awoken in the middle of the night and keep playing worse case scenarios in my head. That is what is making me still freak out. I should take the advice of my brother Rick and just be thankful that it turned out the way that it did, know that I am safe and not to dwell on the worst case scenarios.

As it turns out, shortly after the police left, around 12:15pm a co-worker calls the office and I tell him what had just happened. He must have been concerned with the way that I sounded and called one of the owners. He was on his way to Midway airport to drop off his wife and said that he would stop by the office on his way home. He did show up just before 2:00pm and it was a good thing because by then the adrenaline had left my body and the freak out had begun. I really had to go to the ladies room but was afraid to leave the office. I was able to use the ladies room and he walked me to my car and the ordeal was over.

Geez, if I had just gone home like I had told my friend I was going to do.

Best part of the whole story.
"Stranger Danger" must have scared the germs out of my system (along with the vitamin water that Simone gave me) because I feel much better and never came down with a full fledged cold.

So to all the women that read this blog, please be aware while out and about. Keep yourself safe as we enter this holiday season and we are out shopping, be alert to the people around you in the mall, at the checkout when you have your wallet out, in the parking lot... Be safe, please!!!!