“What is a home without children? Quiet.” – Henry Youngman
When my granddaughter was about two, her mother asked me to watch her while she went to give blood. I often cross-stitch in my room in the evening. My granddaughter was content to play on the floor next to my chair while I cross stitched that night. She had some toys and spotted my portable phone.I let her play with it thinking she could do no harm. Wrong!
Suddenly, there was agitated pounding on the front door. John, my husband, was watching TV downstairs in the family room. I hoped he would get the door, but being almost deaf, he did not hear the pounding. I reluctantly got up, not an easy task with my arthritis after being immobile for a while. As I went down the stairs with my granddaughter following, the door suddenly flew open and in came an East Greenbush police officer with his gun out and ready to use. Holy shit! My response was to shout “Across the street!” and I pointed in that direction. You see, that house was reportedly a drug house and everyone in the neighborhood knew the police were trying to catch the owners in the act of selling drugs. The officer proceeded into our house searching for a suspect like they do on TV. Finally, my husband appeared. He knew the policeman and the three others following closely behind. The cop explained what was going on.
He had a car pulled over on Routes 9 and 20 for speeding. An unanswered 911 call had come in at the dispatcher office and at that point, every East Greenbush police car was notified and sped to our house. Most of the police knew my husband because he was a volunteer fireman at the time. It was evident to me who had made that call. I reluctantly told them it was all my fault because I had let my granddaughter play with the phone. The police were just glad nothing was wrong. One said that it was the speeder’s “Lucky Day.”
A few weeks later, we got our monthly phone bill, which was very much higher than usual. My granddaughter had also called Brazil three times.