Learning from Others

1. KNOW WHAT CARDS YOU CARRY!

Recently a friend's car was broken into and her purse was stolen. She had parked at a nature center (last place you would worry about) and ran in to get her daughter from a class. This gal can't remember if she shoved her purse under her seat, she usually does. But the criminal was lurking and watched as she left her car without a purse on her shoulder. Creepy! They used 2 or 3 of her cards within a half hour...over $2000 worth of purchases.

Anyways, WAKE UP CALL and GREAT REMINDER to make a photocopy of all your credit cards etc. Take a front and back copy of them so you have all the numbers and phone numbers that you need to immediately cancel cards. I am not sure where I would want to carry that information but I know at least having a copy at home would be helpful! It also reminded me how important it is to NOT leave your purse in the car...or other valuable items!

2. GET TO KNOW AT LEAST ONE NEIGHBOR!

This morning our neighbors next door were trying really hard to get into the neighbors across the street. Ed and I watched and wondered what was going on. They finally got in and the went in....we lost interest but about an hour later another car pulled up and they went in but were also looking all around the house too. So I called our neighbor and found out carbon monoxide detectors were going off...you could hear the alarms outside. The owners of the house were out of town.

DING! DING! DING! GREAT reminder to give a neighbor the code to your garage or a key to your house so that they can get in if you ever needed them to. I called my neighbor today and we exchanged cell numbers, door codes, security system instructions etc. Now if we are out of town, we have someone to call if we need to get in the house. And that also reminds me to make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector upstairs near all of your bedrooms. I can't remember the exact rules with that but I think it is within 10 feet of each bedroom.