BANG! The door bounced in my hand as it hit the security bar. Oops.
I called to Tod through the crack in the door to come rescue me, but he didn't answer. It was almost midnight and I was arriving home late after helping Tracey with wedding invitations. Tod had spent the day at a tech conference and banquet. He must have gotten home before me, flipped the bar shut from habit, and already gone to bed.
He was so dead to the world that he didn't hear me shout, knock, or ring the doorbell half a dozen times. He didn't hear the home phone ring (I called three times) or his cell phone (twice). Now I was worried that he wasn't just sleeping, but was knocked unconscious and bleeding. I had to get in on my own.
I examined the security bar and figured out how to take it apart, but I needed tweezers and I didn't have any on my side of the door. What tools did I have at hand? Maybe I could do something with a credit card. That always works in the movies, right?
It works in real life, too. It was shockingly easy to set the credit card against the bar, close the door, and then open the door while pushing the plastic. I was inside in a flash.
I found Tod in the bed, completely insensate from too much sake with the geeks. He was breathing and there was no visible blood so I left him there while I calmed down from my adventure and got ready for bed. Thirty six hours later, I'm not calm yet but I am sure I'll be laughing about this someday soon.
This happened to me once - the cat had locked me out. She had jumped up trying to open the door in my old place. But only succeeded in flicking the security bar.
I tried everything to fix it and then ended up calling my dad (at 1am eek) as he just lived around the corner in those days. He came with a screwdriver and just popped up the bolt and removed the whole security unit so was in easy squeazy.
But it is scary how easy it is to break into houses.