Not long ago, I was awakened in the middle of the night. The remnants of an alarm sound were ringing in my ears. I couldn't quite place the alarm. I looked around the bedroom, and my golden retriever was at full alert looking the upstairs hallway (the other dog, the sheltie, was nestled comfortably against my wife). Hmmm. A quick look at my alarm panel told me that all doors and windows were secure. The clock said 3 am--prime time for a breakin, IMO. So *** was going on. The alarm sound I had heard was vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. I grabbed my tac flashlight and started to check out the house.
The first thing that became clear to me was that it is really, really hard to think clearly at 3am. I just couldn't get my brain going to process the info I had. I went downstairs to check things out, leaving my Sig and Mossberg in the vault. Did I mention how hard it is to think clearly at 3am?
So if it wasn't my security system, and it wasn't a smoke alarm, what the heck was it? Everything was locked up tight downstairs. It occurred to me that perhaps it was a car alarm, so I turned off the security system and went out into the garage. Unarmed. Did I mention how hard it is to think clearly at 3 am. The garage was fine, but it quickly occured to me that if a BG wanted to draw me outside, a car alarm was a great way to do it.
So what the heck was going on. I went back to bed, but was still working the problem. Then I remembered the CO2 detector. Hmmm. I checked it out and sure enough, that was it. The CO2 alarm had gone off. So then I had to figure out if there was, in fact, a CO2 problem. I concluded that the detector was malfunctioning.
The next morning, I thought the whole thing over. Althought we have a pretty good plan for most threats, I clearly didn't have this one covered. First of all, any nighttime anomoly needs to be considered life threatening until proven otherwise. That doesn't mean calling the cops right away, but it does mean being armed while problem solving. Secondly, I wasn't fully versed in the operation of the CO2 detector. If I had been, I would have recognized the alarm and been able to problem the alarm much more efficientlly. Lastly, you just can't count on being able to think clearly at 3am.
Anyway, I thought you guys might find this interesting.
The first thing that became clear to me was that it is really, really hard to think clearly at 3am. I just couldn't get my brain going to process the info I had. I went downstairs to check things out, leaving my Sig and Mossberg in the vault. Did I mention how hard it is to think clearly at 3am?
So if it wasn't my security system, and it wasn't a smoke alarm, what the heck was it? Everything was locked up tight downstairs. It occurred to me that perhaps it was a car alarm, so I turned off the security system and went out into the garage. Unarmed. Did I mention how hard it is to think clearly at 3 am. The garage was fine, but it quickly occured to me that if a BG wanted to draw me outside, a car alarm was a great way to do it.
So what the heck was going on. I went back to bed, but was still working the problem. Then I remembered the CO2 detector. Hmmm. I checked it out and sure enough, that was it. The CO2 alarm had gone off. So then I had to figure out if there was, in fact, a CO2 problem. I concluded that the detector was malfunctioning.
The next morning, I thought the whole thing over. Althought we have a pretty good plan for most threats, I clearly didn't have this one covered. First of all, any nighttime anomoly needs to be considered life threatening until proven otherwise. That doesn't mean calling the cops right away, but it does mean being armed while problem solving. Secondly, I wasn't fully versed in the operation of the CO2 detector. If I had been, I would have recognized the alarm and been able to problem the alarm much more efficientlly. Lastly, you just can't count on being able to think clearly at 3am.
Anyway, I thought you guys might find this interesting.
