Another day, another adventure......

A Houston Police badge??

Grant and I went to Kroger today to stock up on groceries after getting home from Alabama this weekend (more on that in the next couple of days). We got there at exactly 1:30pm. I went and opened Grant's door, locked the car, unbuckled him (at which point he squirmed out of his seat to try to play in the car.....he loves to do this). Then I realized his shoes still weren't on (they were sitting on the other side of the car), so I told him I'd come to the other side to put them on. Well, I got over to that door and realized it was locked. Yes, I had left my purse in the car, next to Grant's car seat. I quickly checked all the doors (although I knew this was pointless), then I panicked and ran into the store once I realized I locked my baby in a car on a very hot day!

I called the first locksmith I saw in the phone book, only to be told they don't come to our area. Then the lady at the counter suggested I called 911, so I did. A few seconds into the conversation, I started crying as she asked me for the location, etc. A manager who was standing nearby realized what was going on (I asked him the store's address and phone number, and he saw me crying). He took the phone and did the rest, and told me to go out with Grant. I had barely gotten out there when he, another manager, and a nice lady from the deli all came out. Grant was still just jumping around in the car, having a great time and not realizing why all these people were standing around! We tried to get him to come to the front seat, thinking he might by chance press some of the buttons on the door. But while we were trying to get his attention, he heard the sirens and looked at me and started pointing excitedly towards the direction they were coming from!

There's a fire station less than one mile away, so they got there very quickly. A fire truck AND ambulance showed up (very embarrassing for me!), and there were no less than 7 men there to help us. They immediately got to work trying to press the unlock button with what looked like a coat hanger. Then a police officer came and reassured me that they do this stuff all the time, and that Grant would be fine. I never doubted that.....by that point, he had only been in the car for about 10 minutes and was still happy as a lark, completely oblivious as to why now about 10 or 11 people were surrounding our car! In fact, one time I looked in at him, and he looked at me with a huge smile on his face, pointing at the fire truck which was sitting right behind our car!

The paramedic who was keeping an eye on Grant saw him pull my keys out of my purse. He started pressing the buttons that lock and unlock the car, and the man was yelling, "press the middle button!" (which would have unlocked it). But no, he just pressed the lock button a few times, then threw the keys down and went to find something else. But a few minutes later (no later than 1:50), one of the men was able to unlock it and our ordeal was over! Grant was sweaty and a little red in the face, but he still hadn't started crying or anything. All the men were very nice, and I thanked them profusely for all of their help! They were some of the friendliest men you could ever meet.

As they were leaving, the police officer handed Grant a police badge. Then, as we got our things together and went into the store, three of the firefighters also came into the store to go shopping. They mentioned that they were about to come stock up on food anyway when they got the phone call, so I guess the timing worked out well for them! One of them also saw that I was holding the police badge, and he told me, "when you get home, throw that one away and come up to the fire station. We'll give him one of our badges." I thought this was so funny.....I never would have thought there would be rivalry between firefighters and policemen! They told me again to bring Grant up to the fire station so he could sit in their truck and take a picture with them. I will have to write them a nice letter and take them up on their offer one of these days!