Weird Noises In The Night

On Wednesday I received a call from a friend saying that sometime in the middle of the day a set of footsteps showed up outside her house.  This might not seem so odd except for the fact that they were only along the back perimeter of her house near each window and entrance.  Along with that, she has 3 small children and her husband had left that morning on business.

I asked if she'd checked near the meter - maybe it was the meter man.  Nope.

Her husband told her to check the yards of other houses nearby (three being uninhabited right how).  Nope - no footprints there.

So off to her house I went after AWANA to spend the night.  She was pretty wired so we sat up drinking tea and eating chocolate chip cookies.  Under normal circumstances, this would have been a really enjoyable experience; however, you could tell that both of us were slightly distracted by the tension that sat in the room.

Around midnight we heard a loud bang/crash (hard to explain in writing) that sounded like it had come from just outside the front door.  We were on our feet and peeking through the window to see what was out there.  Nothing.

By this point both our heart rates had increased, but we sat back down and continued talking.  Around 1 am we headed for bed to try and get some sleep.  Given the circumstances, we ended up sharing her bed as we figured we'd give each other moral support should something happen.  As most girls at a sleepover do, we talked and jabbered until we were nearly asleep.  Eventually I drifted off somewhere after 2 am, but Terra never did.

Suddenly I was awaken by a kick in the leg and Terra yell whispering, "Becky, did you hear that!"  Nope - guess my tiredness far outweighed my anxiousness.  When I awakened, I realized that Kylee (her 4 year old daughter) had joined us and was also now wide awake.  It was in that moment that I was reminded that God prepares us in advance for what we need to know about Him - even if it is through a bible lesson for preschoolers.  That night in AWANA Cubbies we had studied about how God is with us always.  So as we laid there anxiously waiting to see if we heard anything else, I rolled over and took Terra's hand and started praying asking God for his protection.

As we laid there listening, we heard footsteps coming across the carpet.  Thankfully that turned out to be Kaden (her 3 year old son) coming to sleep with mommy.  So now we had 4 people piled in the bed and Kaden was the only one sound asleep.

Around 3:30 am (and I know the time frame given that I was clinging to my cell phone while Terra clutched the home phone) another one of the loud bang/crashes happened.  This time we were out of bed and flipped on the hall/stairwell light.  I'm not quite sure how brave that was, but for some reason I felt better that we could "see" whoever might be in the house vs. bumping into him in the hallway.

We checked on Cole (her other 3 year old) to see if maybe he had kicked the wall in his sleep.  That was only wishful thinking because he was curled in a ball no where near the wall.  At that point I decided to try and look at the back yard through Kylee's windows.  Not seeing anything I headed back to the hallway.  Just as I stepped into the hallway, another bang/crash happened and this time I felt the floor vibrate!

That did it.  Terra called 911 so fast that the next thing I heard was her repeating her address and describing what was happening.  By now Kylee was in my arms wanting to know what was going on and I was trying to reassure her that we were fine.  The dispatcher on 911 continued to ask Terra questions and then told her the officers were now outside her home.  As we looked out the bedroom windows, we could see 3 officers slowly approaching the home and in the next instant they were suddenly running.

Based on what had happened, they were pretty sure they were going to find someone breaking in.  Fortunately or unfortunately (maybe it would have been easier to know what the sounds were coming from), they didn't find anyone.  After searching the perimeter of the house and the tree line in the back yard, they came to the front door to search the house.

Terra and I repeated all of the information and the officers searched the first floor, garage, basement and crawl space.  Terra apologized for bothering them, and thankfully they graciously reassured her that she had done the right thing.  They too thought the footprints were suspicious and in a suspicious location.  Not to mention they couldn't find anything to indicate what the sound might be or where it was coming from.

By the time they were done with their search and had checked all the locked doors it was nearly 4:30 am so we headed back upstairs to try and sleep.  Terra scooped Cole out of his bed and placed him on the floor of the master bedroom.  She, Kylee and I climbed back into bed and joined a sleeping Kaden.

By this time we were exhausted and so was little Kylee who needed to get up for school in the morning.  We talked calmly to her so that she could unwind after all the excitement and soon she was sound asleep.  I must have also fallen asleep because the next thing I knew it was 7:45 am and Cole was running around the bedroom.

We all slowly woke up and headed down to the kitchen for breakfast.  I'm not sure about Terra, but for me, coffee hasn't tasted that good in a long time!  Terra got the kids going with breakfast, and then set to work to get Kylee ready for school.  I stayed back with the boys and played cars while Terra took Ky to school.  Upon her return, I headed home to shower and get ready for work.

Given that the police hadn't found an answer to the weird noises or suspicious footprints, Terra wasn't comfortable staying alone in the house on Thursday night.  So after adjusting some plans, she and the kids joined me at my place for a sleepover!

More on the sleepover, pizza, babies, etc... in the next post.  Hope you enjoyed the story.  Although it wasn't the circumstances Terra or I would have chosen, it was a great night of bonding and catching up.  :)