Last evening I arrived at my client's house to take care of their dogs (they're also my neighbors). When I tried to open the front door, I discovered my key wouldn’t work. It had been difficult the last time I had visits there, but this time it wouldn't even turn in the lock. After a small extinction burst of trying to open the front door, I decided I needed a new plan.
I walked around the house, hoping to find an open window I could crawl through; no luck they were all closed and locked. I noticed their garage had a keypad to open the garage door, but I didn’t have the code. So I sent a text to the client, telling her what happened and I needed the code. Then I waited for her to text me back. However, after about half an hour, I hadn’t heard from her, and it was beginning to rain… Murphy’s Law, when you’re locked out, naturally it’ll be raining too.
I thought about calling a locksmith, but since I was trying to get into someone else’s house, I didn’t think they would open the door for me, at least not without the client’s permission. Since I’d already called and texted them, and hadn’t heard back yet, I knew I couldn’t get their permission. Plus, I didn’t want to pay for a locksmith… So I made that my last resort, behind waiting for the client to get back to me with the garage door code… She did, but not until much later.
So, I finally decided to try to get in by climbing over the six-foot wooden fence, and then see if my key worked in the back door, or if I could squeeze through the dog door. But first I had to figure out how to get over the fence. I’m not a young person; and even in my youth, scaling walls was not something I practiced often. I tried to grab onto the top of the fence, to pull myself up, but that didn’t work. We have an HOA, and our fences have to have a flat board on the top of them. It looks nice, and my cats love being able to sit up there, looking down on the world from relative safety. It does make it more expensive to replace your fence, and, unless you’re pretty tall, it also makes it really hard to get a handhold on the top of the fence, much less drag yourself over the ledge the board makes. That’s a good thing when you want to keep people out, not so much when you want to get in. However, since I almost never need to break into my house, much less a neighbor’s, the board on top is a good thing.
I knew I needed something to boost myself up high enough, so I could get the leverage to get over the top. Luckily, in the back of my car, I keep some plastic containers to hold treats, my Thundershirts, and other dog training equipment. Sometimes it pays to use the trunk as storage, LOL. So I got those, stacked them on top of each other, and climbed up on them, they were pretty rickety, and it wasn’t all that easy. Then, as the boxes dropped out from under me, I managed to drag myself onto the top of the fence, and then over the other side. The whole time, I was praying that a concerned neighbor didn’t see me, and call the police.
Once I finally got over the fence, I had to get into the house. I really didn’t want to try to squeeze through the dog door, it’s small, and I wasn’t sure I would fit. I had visions of getting stuck in it, and then having to call 911. Getting arrested, or being on the news (it would be a funny kicker), wasn’t on my schedule, LOL. Thank God, this time Murphy took a rest, and my key fit and opened the back door. I was so happy!!!
I managed to get in to take care of the dogs, I didn’t get hurt, and I didn’t get arrested, or end up on the news. All in all, it was an interesting adventure, and it ended well… But I don’t want to do it again!
BTW, in case you’re wondering, when I left I was able to lock the security screen. Now that I have the garage code, I’ll go in and out that way.
