Houdini strikes again--in a BIG way!

On Friday, August 8, 2014, Jared and I went to Sam's Club, without the kids, to get our membership cards before he started work that following Monday. The store is super small. Pretty lame, actually. Although I'm not sure that's a fair comparison since the Hillsboro, Oregon Costco we frequented was, at the time we moved, the largest in the nation. And on a much tighter, limited budget, maybe smaller IS better.

There wasn't a huge line at member services, so it didn't take long for us to get our cards and become official.

On our way home, we swung by the new house so Jared could see it. He hadn't been by in person since the beginning of July. We jumped out of the car and did a quick walk through. It was a little weird to me that the house was always open and unlocked. It was after 6pm, but there were still a few workers there wrapping things up. The doors were all in the garage waiting to be put in place. The drywall was up! It was fun to see the walls without seeing through the wooden planks and trying to "imagine" what it would look like.

On the two mile drive back to the duplex, we got a call from Jake. It was a call every parent dreads and I have no doubt he dreaded making it, because the next words out of his mouth were, "Mom, there's a police officer here. She wants to speak to you."

I heard the words, but they were so unexpected and foreign to my brain. I'm not entirely sure they registered because I calmly said, "Okay, but we're almost home."

"You are?"

"Yes, but I'll speak to her anyway."

The voice on the other end identified herself as Officer Marty and didn't want me to be alarmed, everything was okay. (That was reassuring. But confusing. What was going on then?)

She said our youngest had gotten out of the duplex undetected and a neighbor lady found him and called the police because she couldn't figure out who he belonged to.

At that point we were 30 seconds away. I told her we were coming into the subdivision and would be right there. Jared pulled up alongside the police SUV parked outside our duplex (no Constable for this call!) and we noticed another unit further down the street. I jumped out while Jared went around and parked the car out back.

I found all of the kids safe and standing quietly in a half circle in the front room with Officer Marty and her male partner (whose name I've forgotten) facing them. In the moment that I rushed through the front door and saw them standing there, my first thought was: "I'm so glad the house was clean when we left!"

I shook Officer Marty's hand and said I was SO sorry about all of this! I really was so sorry tax payer dollars had to be wasted on my 3 year-old-escape artist--but also so grateful no harm had been done! The cruel (or comical) irony is that there was JJ, standing there, looking around innocently up at the different faces above him, wondering what all the fuss was about, in his "Little boy, BIG attitude" shirt with only a diaper on and barefoot! While his appearance was mortifying, I was again, grateful my house was actually presentable when they arrived (because the children were all completely safe and unharmed). I mean, let's face it--it's hard enough to be a parent under the best of circumstances without feeling like you're being judged by people who know you, let alone by strangers and officers of the law! I'm hoping the condition of the house helped the officers get a sense that we weren't negligent parents and that there weren't any obvious signs of abuse.

Jared came in through the backdoor at that moment and introduced himself. The officers were very cool about the whole ordeal actually. (They sure are intimidating, though!) They said that this happens a LOT further down in the subdivision especially with kids JJ's age. We explained we had just moved here a month before and were in new surroundings and a new home. JJ is a stealthy, little Houdini. I told the officers he had gotten out of the house in Oregon back in April before we moved while in my care and I had to strategically plan potty breaks.

To conclude their visit, the officers needed to see our IDs (yikes!) and wrote some information down for their police report. This has never happened to us before, so I asked if there would be any follow-up (while crossing my fingers that the case would be closed). Officer Marty said no (phew), but she gave me her card anyway as a matter of formality. We thanked them and off they went. And as soon as the front door closed, the kids quickly dispersed to their respective rooms without a sound, fearing the wrath of their parents, I suppose. Jared was not happy.

As an after thought, I realized I never found out who called the police. I wanted to thank that person myself. But by the time the idea came to me, the cruisers were gone.

While I was really disappointed and slightly embarrassed we had a run-in with the College Station Police Department, just 37 days after moving there, I couldn't be angry at Jake, whom we had left in charge to babysit, when JJ's pulled the same exact stunt with me, his own mother. Even if you think your house is secure, you don't know it's not until your child breeches your precautions for the first time.

Apparently, JJ unlocked the back door (bolt included) and slipped into the backyard. Then, he figured out how to unlatch the gate (which he hadn't done until THAT day!) and wandered out into the parking area. I will remind you that a) he had no socks or shoes on b) it was a hot afternoon in August where he could have severely burned the bottoms of his feet on the asphalt c) he was walking through a parking lot, essentially. He would have been hard to see, if seen at all, where only cars and big pick-up trucks were coming in or backing out in a one-way direction and d) it was the time of day when people started coming home from school and work.

JJ had a guardian angel that day!! She saw him alone and he, of course, could not say one decipherable word, never mind his name or ours or tell her where we lived or anything--so she did the only thing she could think of and that was to call the authorities for help. When the police arrived, they started knocking on doors up and down our street. When an officer came to our duplex, she asked Jake if they were missing a child. Jake's epic answer, "No." But the officer went on to offer more details describing JJ as around 2 or 3 years old, wearing a white shirt and a diaper, no pants or shoes. Jake quickly realized that her description sounded an awful lot like JJ and went to go locate him in the duplex. When he couldn't find his little brother, he sheepishly admitted he couldn't find his little brother and it was probably him. The officer explained there was a lady down the street who had found him in the back alley and she was going to take Jake to get him. (Jake said words cannot explain how awkward and embarrassing that loooong walk down the street was being accompanied by a police officer). When Jake arrived at the apartment, he said hi to the lady and when he saw JJ, he was sitting at a table eating a snack and watching TV without a care in the world. Jake was thinking, "Kid!! You're killing me!" He looked at Jake for a moment then went back to watching TV. Apparently there was no need to prove JJ was Jake's brother. I suppose Jake's complete mortification was evidence enough. Jake said, "C'mon JJ, we gotta go" and scooped him up, while telling the lady thank you. Officer Marty accompanied our engine and caboose back to our duplex where she started the required paperwork. She looked up at Jake shortly after she began and said, "You should probably call your parents and let them know what's going on." Jake slowly responded, "Yeeeeaaahhh, I was really hoping you wouldn't say that." The officers chuckled at that. That's when Jake called us from his phone.

For days, Jared and I were afraid to go to sleep for fear JJ would get up and slip out of the house again. There were no locks up high and as for door-knob covers in JJ's world...those were SO last year!

I actually used Officer Marty's card and called her on Monday to see if I could locate the woman who found JJ. That was the very day of his 3rd birthday. My heart was still skipping beats every time I thought, "What if?" What if that woman hadn't been out there when JJ was? What if someone with terrible, selfish, evil intentions found him instead? What if a truck or car ran him over? Accidental deaths happen all the time over less than this! It could've ended in all sorts of badly.

I was able to get the name of the woman who took JJ in. Now all I needed was her duplex number. I explained to the manager what had happened and asked if she could get permission to tell us the woman's address. When the manager okay'd it with the other tenant the following day, Jared, JJ and I headed to her duplex ten units down the street and took her a plate of birthday cake and a thank you card with our expressed gratitude and appreciation for her quick action and our belief that she was in the right place at the right time so that JJ could live to see and celebrate his 3rd birthday!