What a dummy I am!

Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
5,717
Reaction score
12,977
Location
GA
We left our Mid Georgia home early last Friday morning headed for Franklin, NC for four nights. I always worry when we are gone that long. We don’t have a security system, and our home is just about 50-60 feet off a fairly busy paved country road. Of course everyone in the county knows that I have a fairly good gun collection. I have two small safes, one a pretty good Treadlock, and the other a cheap Chinese Browning. They will keep the amateur kick the door down and grab what you can in 10 minutes thieves out, but are pretty useless defense against a determined guy with a pry bar. The safes are in two different buildings.

Anyhow, I gathered up a few “loose” guns and packed both the safes as full as possible. I always arrange to have some work to do around the farm buildings and lots so I can pay one of my helpers to spend a few hours on the premises so the place won’t look deserted, and I also let the guy leasing my pasture know, so he could help keep an eye out. My brother also helped by spending some time there Sunday afternoon. No one was there at night.

I worried some, of course, but I talked with my brother and the hired guy a couple of times, and they assured me no one had kicked the door down. We got home mid-afternoon Tuesday, and all appeared fine.

About an hour ago, I opened the closet where the house safe is, and guess what? THE SAFE DOOR WAS STANDING WIDE OPEN! Nothing missing, but there it was, just waiting for some doped-up miscreant to help himself. I guess I was intending to put something else in the safe, got busy and forgot, and just never opened the closet door again before we left. I have close to $5K in cash, maybe $2500 in silver coins, and other odds and ends in there, besides the guns, a fee of which are worth $1K+.
What a dummy I am.
 
Register to hide this ad
I once left the front door of my rented town home unlocked while I spent four days in the Death Valley area. Guess this was the one time living in a gated community actually worked.
 
Whew!!! You'll probably never do that again.
I'm glad that it worked out for you. If there had been a break-in, you would have thought that they cracked the safe to get in.
 
Dang neighbor!

I know that I'm very, very forgetful. Either that or I imagine that I have done something, which I didn't do.

I made myself a rule to never step away from my safe without locking the door. Period.

Even if I need something and plan to return it almost immediately.

I left it open once and a kid knocked at my door. Completely forgot the safe was open until later in the day when I just happened to peek in the closet. Yikes!

Daddy always said the Good Lord takes care of drunks and fools.

Seems I'm well cared for. LOL


,
 
I made it out of the house for about 10 minutes and realized I might not have locked the safe. This was about 30 years ago and I live in a large suburb of Albany. Turned around and went home and found I did lock it.-:o

As a extra measure I now hang my cars fob and door key on the handle of the star that opens the safe door when the safe is unlocked. I never leave home without the fob/key so I trust I will always lock the safe when leaving.
 
Sadly, and with complete honesty, I know that as I age, this kind of thing happens more often than I want to admit. It’s just how it goes. I’m 78 and am acutely aware that BIG mistakes can happen. I’m still shooting, but flying and motorcycles are in the past. Other activities are suspect! Be careful and use check lists. Tom H.
 
So, you made a mistake, but nothing happened. I have also left home without locking the door or turning on the alarm. Good that I live in a good neighborhood.

My buddy also lives in a good neighborhood. He locked the doors and all, but the wife told everybody on farcebook that her husband was going hunting next week and the week after they were going on vacation for a week.

Guess what? Broken window and no guns left.
 
About an hour ago, I opened the closet where the house safe is, and guess what? THE SAFE DOOR WAS STANDING WIDE OPEN! Nothing missing, but there it was, just waiting for some doped-up miscreant to help himself.


No autopsy, no foul (as we used to say in pick up ball games) but, I haven't done that but know the feeling you must have experienced that takes at least a year off your life. :cool:
 
we got home from a long shopping trip and the front door was wide open... I told my wife to stay put and be ready to call the police and I then proceeded to "cleared" the house... they either replaced everything we had with exact replicas OR we left our door open and nothing happened while we were gone for hours... still think it might be replicas... lol
 
I had a similar brain lapse a few years ago. We left for a weekend getaway early one Saturday morning and returned very late Sunday night. When I was coming around the curve to the house, I reached for my garage door opener and looked up to see the garage door wide open. I checked the house, and everything was exactly as we left it. I am 100% sure I hit the button to close the garage door when we left as was the wife, but we didn't wait for it to fully close. I can only surmise that for some reason the light beam safety feature must have been activated opening the door back up.

Now I always wait for the door to fully close then an extra 5 or 10 seconds to make sure it is fully closed.
 
Back
Top