You damn kids!

One of the problems with living away from home is not receiving vital updates from home.  For instance, the workings of the house alarm system.  For the first time since early summer, I was exiting the house when no one else was there, and had to set the alarm.  So naturally I flubbed up this basic procedure and set off the alarm as I was leaving.

I got a call from the security company and gave them the incorrect password, because I was out of the loop.  While it occurred to my parents to keep me updated on these changes when I was at home, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.  The woman said, "Thank you very much," and hung up.  Then I left.

My mother came home about five minutes after I left.  She let the dog out into the back yard, and then a policeman ordered her and our house guest out of the house.  She didn't understand what was going on at first, since the words were garbled.  My mother assumed it was some of the noisy neighbors getting into some new loud interaction.  She said that when she finally came out and realized that it was a policeman and that he was talking to her, the situation felt surreal.  After all, she was going on with business as usual, and here was the policeman telling her to come out of her own house with her hands where he could see them. 

The policeman figured out almost immediately that she was probably not the criminal mastermind he had been sent to capture.  Nevertheless, he wouldn't leave until she flashed her driver's license and called to the company to tell them that her teenage daughter figured out how to set off the house alarm on herself and give an old password.

I felt so guilty when I got back and she told me.  The security lady had sounded so casual, I assumed that everything was fine.  But of course logically she isn't going to yell, "I CAUGHT YOU IN THE ACT, THIEF, AND THE POLICE ARE GOING TO NAIL YOUR ASS!" when someone gives the incorrect password.  I went on my merry way, just in time for the police to show up and order my unsuspecting mother from the house.  By coincidence, her cell phone had run out of batteries, so when the company called to ask if the name I'd given them was legitimate, and the password business was a mistake, she didn't pick up the call.  She had no idea that the alarm had been tripped.

So here's the take-home message: unless you want to be assaulted by the police, keep your college student up to date on important changes in the house.

technorati tags:house, alarms, police, family, accidents