Police Blotter

It was a frigid -14° degrees below zero in the small town of Hamilton around 7:00 p.m. last night. A husband and wife along with their toddler son went to the Hamilton school district to help at a Campus Life JV event. Toward the end of the event, it was time to clean up and start sending kids home. It was during this time that Jason (the husband) handed his wife Joy the keys to the gray Jeep Cherokee and asked her to get their toddler strapped into his car seat and warm up the vehicle. And that is when things went awry…

I took Dawson out to Jason’s jeep and started getting him in his car seat. I had the keys in my hand and they kept poking Dawson. At one point, I heard the car horn go off, indicating that the Jeep lock system had just been activated but I thought nothing of it and I threw the keys into the front driver’s side seat. (My car has a lock safety system, so that even in the lock function is pushed on the key fob, as long as a door as open, the car lock will not work.) Meanwhile, Dawson was squirming and demanding something to drink because he was thirsty so I was struggling to get him strapped in. Finally, the job was done. I shut his door and then attempted to open the driver side door to start the vehicle and get it warmed up… but the door was locked. I then attempted to open all 4 car doors. All locked. ……….

There was little Dawson strapped in his car seat, sucking his thumb, looking out the window at me wondering why I wasn’t getting in the Jeep.

I frantically ran to the school doors trying to find Jason to tell him I had locked Dawson in the Jeep. The school doors were locked and I pounded on them, when the young man (Jerod) who was running the jv event came to the door to open it for me. I told him I needed Jason, I locked Dawson in the car and we need help NOW! Jason was loading Jerod’s truck with supplies we had left over. I ran to Jerod’s truck and told Jason the news. Utter mayhem erupted. Jason ran to the jeep and tried opening all 4 doors asking me how this had happened. Meanwhile, I can no longer feel my fingers or toes and my snot is starting to freeze in my nose. Immediately Jason dials 911.

911: This is 911 what’s your emergency?
Jason: Yes, we are parked in the parking lot of the Hamilton school district and we locked our son in our vehicle. It’s freezing out here. Can you send a police officer out to help us get the car unlocked?
911: Sir, police officers no longer respond to cases of keys locked in cars. Can your son unlock the car for you?

Jason: No you idiot! If he could, I wouldn’t be calling you would I? (Okay, Jason did not say this but if I were him, I would have) You’ve got to be kidding me! How can they not respond to this situation?! No, my son cannot unlock the door-he’s a toddler and he’s strapped in his car seat. This is an emergency, it’s 14 degrees below zero!
911: Sir, you will have to break your window open. (editors note: it’s a 40 minute drive home from Hamilton considering the road conditions.Can you imagine driving that entire trip with a window busted out?!)
Jason: we are NOT going to break a window, surely there has to be an officer who can come and help us!
911: Sir, an officer is just going to come and break a window, isn’t that something you could just do yourself!
Jason: I’m not going to do that! Can you call a wrecker? A locksmith? Anyone else?
911: Sir, I will transfer you to a wrecker service.

…15 minutes at least, has now passed. Jerod went and found a hanger which he and Jason were trying to finagle in through the car door, but the hanger was too flimsy to push the car lock to the left to unlock the door) Jason is now transferred to a new dispatcher who is trying to find the closest wrecking service available to come and help us out. There is some confusion, and then Jason hands me the phone.

Dispatcher: There is a wrecking service in Waterloo that will be able to come out (that’s at least a 15-20 minute wait)
Joy: Um, is that the closest service available? ( I really have no clue who I’m talking to at this point, I’m near tears, freezing, and panicked.)
Dispatcher: There is a police officer coming from Ashley which is not too far from there, and also an officer from Hamilton who should be coming-he said he would come to stay with you until someone arrives.
Joy: Thank you sir. ( I see headlights pull into the parking lot whom I think is a police officer so I wave him over) Sir, there is a police officer here now, do I need to stay on the phone with you?
Dispatcher: No you should be taken care of now.
Joy: Thank you.

Dawson is still sucking his thumb and staring at us through the window. He yells one time. Then goes back to sucking his thumb, wondering why in the heck are we not just getting in the jeep! It’s cold in there!

The police officer pulls up, gets out of his car and he doesn’t have a coat on!!!! I said “sir, do you have a coat? Do you want my coat?” And he smiled and said no, his was in the car and he was fine. (He would have looked quite extravagant in my pink and brown puffalump coat if I do say so myself). He gets in the trunk of his car pulls out a few locksmith items and wedges Jason’s door open with this inflatable thing. He takes a long crowbar looking thing, slides through the door, pushes the lock button and unlocks the door, all in a matter of about 5 minutes. I burst into tears and ask the officer if I’m allowed to hug him, and then I hug him anyway. We thank the officer profusely and then he leaves.I got in the Jeep and felt Dawson’s hands and face and put my gloves on him. Dawson now has a worried look on his face because I think he can see I was frantic. Jason starts the Jeep. My adrenaline comes down to a controllable level and the shaking I was doing is now coming from being so cold rather than the panic stricken state I was in. We drove home and got home just in time to watch “The Office”.

And that is the true story of how I received the award for Worst Mother of the Year.
It’s too bad you can no longer the read the post about the time we accidently locked Dawson in the house…