{"id":668,"date":"2009-10-09T10:39:08","date_gmt":"2009-10-09T17:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=668"},"modified":"2025-11-07T10:08:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:08:56","slug":"stranger-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=668","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday\u00a0the kids and I did Stranger Class.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

There were several break-ins in my mother’s neighborhood and she got the full scoop at a Neighborhood Watch meeting called by the local Police Dept.\u00a0 This “gang” of thieves would go door to door, dressed as service men.\u00a0 If you opened the door to them they sometimes they would force their way in and rob you.\u00a0 If you ignored them and they thought you weren’t home they went around the back and broke in to rob you.<\/span><\/p>\n

I say “sometimes” force their way in because shortly after the break-ins but before the Neighborhood Watch meeting two guys knocked on my mother’s front door dressed as alarm service men.\u00a0 They claimed they\u00a0WEREN’T selling anything which was why they didn’t have any cards or fliers or anything.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

My mother’s neighbor Bruce (and he fits the name!) was over to break down his equipment after filming and had actually opened the door before I got to it.\u00a0\u00a0 He was arguing with them over how insane it was not to carry fliers or business cards.\u00a0 He kept saying, “Then why are you here?”<\/span><\/p>\n

I told them, “We already have an alarm system and Yes, we knew of the break- ins and had already called to update our system.\u00a0 They seemed more confused by our harping on why come to the door if NOT to sell us something and give us fliers.\u00a0 But they finally left.<\/span><\/p>\n

Found out at the meeting they fit the profile of the robbers and we were lucky.\u00a0 They probably thought Bruce was too ornery and then there were two of us to the two of them.\u00a0 Either way… it prompted a new skill for the boys.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I gave them the usual lecture on strangers which they’ve gotten in school and at Cub Scouts.\u00a0 But I illustrated the need to stay out of arms reach and added the biggest danger is one stranger alone with you alone.\u00a0\u00a0 Conor questioned what to do if there were a group of bad guys.\u00a0 I explained that a group of bad guys aren’t going to try and steal you… only single bad guys do that.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Then we practiced.\u00a0\u00a0 I explained what I expected them to do if someone came to the door.\u00a0\u00a0 And then I went to the door and we roll played.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which was hysterical.\u00a0 The oldest was first and it was like he was whispering behind the door.\u00a0 I couldn’t hear him at all!\u00a0 After remedying that he was finished and the youngest tried next.\u00a0\u00a0 He is ready for paranoid old guy status!\u00a0\u00a0 He’s yelling through the door, “Who are you?\u00a0 What do you want?\u00a0 Go away, I’m going to call the police!”\u00a0\u00a0 So proud!<\/span><\/p>\n

My middle son was ready and tried to do a comedy routine with the Halloween decorations so I deemed the lesson done and sent them off.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next step… Phone Class.\u00a0 Where we practice using the telephone both making and taking calls.\u00a0 After all… they’ll need to know HOW to dial 911 not just that they should.\u00a0 Every phone is different.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday\u00a0the kids and I did Stranger Class.\u00a0 There were several break-ins in my mother’s neighborhood and she got the full scoop at a Neighborhood Watch meeting called by the local Police Dept.\u00a0 This “gang” of thieves would go door … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-joy-of-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4431,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/4431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}