Break-in, in North Phoenix...

After a typically quiet birthday weekend, I was laying in bed last night, reading a few chapters in a Patricia Cornwell book at about 12:30 AM, when I heard a motor start. In my mind, I quickly inventoried everything that could be causing that noise that I'd not heard before. I thought of the air conditioning starting, but it wasn't turned on. Next, could it be the refrigerator in my bedroom that has created this loud interruption of quiet? Was the spa acting up? Suddenly, with my feet not even touching the floor, I flew to where I'd put my gun. But where is that? I moved in here about 2 months ago and can't remember where the damned gun is hidden, so I can get my hands on it in a hurry when I need it and I NEED IT, RIGHT NOW!

The noise that I heard was the garage opening and when you live alone, the garage opening should only happen when you are either in the garage, or in the car. Not in bed! First I ran to the night stand where my gun would have been really handy, but it wasn't there. Next, still at a pretty quick clip, I ran to the living room coffee table and found it. Remembering to take off the safety, I ran to the inside garage door and ripped it open. There, as predicted was a wide open garage with the light on and an idiot standing in the garage wearing plaid pajamas with a loaded, cocked gun in his hand, ready to fire at anything that moved. Fortunately nothing moved. I felt like one of those TV detectives whipping my gun in every direction trying to cover myself. I went around the corner of the garage to see if someone was hiding there, but decided it was too dark, so I went in to get the flashlight. No one was around, however I could see a man walking about 5 houses down and across the street without a a jacket and looking pretty cold. I wonder if that was my breaker inner.

The next part confused my possible attempted break in. The garage door would not go back down, it was jammed in the up position. The controls just wouldn't work. I even tried using one of the remotes from the car...............nothing though. I disconnected the motor, checked the circuit breaker and everything looked to be in operating condition, except the garage wouldn't close on it's own power. I manually closed the garage and double locked the inside door. I tried to go to sleep, but didn't have much luck. I tried turning on the laundry room light, but it didn't do a damned thing for me, so I turned it back off.

This morning, my first piece of business was to investigate the garage and it was fine. I reinstalled the garage door into the electric opener that had the grace to work just fine this morning and all is back to normal. Perhaps YOU can tell me what the hell that was all about. A friend suggested I change my code for my garage opener, but so many garage doors are tuned currently to that code, I'm reluctant to do that. At least I know where I keep my trusty gun now...

You know, in 36 years that I've lived in Arizona carrying fire arms, that's the first time I ever felt glad to have it. I might even invest in bullets now!