SAY WHAT? a 17 year old isn’t suppose to know what to do? Are you kidding me. Seriously, are you kidding me? This goes without saying but she was supposed to keep an eye on the kids. Any normal person would have responded to the police in a more positive and responsible manner.
The only way she could have made it worse was to drop them off next to a freeway.
they’re called double deadbolts. I have them on all my exterior doors. And I seriously doubt a child would wander outside twice if I was watching then.
This seems like a theme on those nanny reality shows on TV. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen one where the family had a 2 or 3 year old who was just wandering around the neighborhood. When the nanny confronts the parents about it, invariably they say something to the effect of “What can we do? He lets himself out.” Seriously? You can’t figure out a way to be sure a 3-year-old stays inside the house? Heaven help you when he’s in high school!
ETA: I’m not saying I know where my older child is every second (she’s 4 now, so she has a little more leeway to play somewhere in the house where I can’t see her), but I have a pretty general idea of what she’s doing, and if I can’t hear her for a few minutes, I go to investigate. If I found her outside in the street, I would FREAK OUT, and you can be sure I would figure out how she managed to get out there and fix the situation so it didn’t happen again. It’s not that I’m the most cautious mother around (I’m one of the few parents at preschool who has not provided a helmet for her kid to wear while riding the tricycles), but some things just frankly scare me, and the thought of one of them getting hit by a car is pretty far up on the list!
In a lot of places (like Massachusetts), it’s illegal (or at least a building code violation) to install double deadbolts in a residence, for the whole “trapped in a burning building” problem.
Sure but that’s because you’d figure out a way to lock them down with duct tape, a broken broom handle and half a deck of cards. You’re Magiver, damn it!
As for the OP, you definitely did the right thing by calling the police and not going into the house. There certainly are situations in which running into somebody’s house is justified, but whenever possible call for help.
My house had them when I was growing up, and my mom made us keep the key in the lock at all times, for that reason. I think the house had them because the door had decorative windows, so it prevents someone from busting the window, reaching through, and turning the lock. My best girlfriend’s house had the same thing, and when I went over, she would look, verify it was me, and then go to the kitchen drawer to get the key. I guess her family was more afraid of being murdered by a home invader, and mine was more afraid of being killed in a fire!
Look at the ‘role model’ she has had to learn about responsibility for anything or any one else.
I am not trying to excuse the teenager for not taking better care of those little ones.
Sleeps With Butterflies, Freudian Slit: I used the expression “sneaking” in the thread title because I had a longer expression before but then part of the thread title was being cut off and so I had to shorten my sentence somehow. Also it gives the whole adventure more cloak and dagger feel and makes it sound more exciting. As Snarky_Kong realized to his disappointment. I couldn’t really say “break in” since the door was open.
StGermain: the children never looked underfed to me. I don’t think food is the problem in that household.
clairobscur: I see that you would have gone in also. But then you (like I to a certain extent) might have the European point of view. It seems that most people in the US are thinking differently.
lobotomyboy63: I grew up in Europe (even though I was born in the USA) and the dictionary I had at home was British which is why I got into the habit of spelling some words in the British way. Even though I live in the US now. I’ll have to check with my local police department if they want calls to the ordinary number. I remember reading the same thing in the novel “Confess, Fletch” by Gregory McDonald, staring investigative reporter Fletch - Fletch finds a dead body in his vacation exchange home and calls the regular police number instead of 911, which makes the police suspicious of him - wouldn’t someone usually call 911 when they find a dead body? Fletch says “why the hurry? he’s already dead.”
Acid Lamp - not a bad idea, ask the 911 person if it’s OK for me to go into the house. But I’m sure she would have said no.
Diogenes the Cynic and John Carter of Mars are the two votes for going in. But so far the vast majority say “don’t go in”. Diogenes - are you an act first and damn the consequences kind of guy? 
Wile E made an astute comment (similar to what elbows and Lobelia Overhill suggested) - why didn’t we at least ring the doorbell or knock on the open front door? I feel stupid now for not thinking of it. Trying to think back to my state of mind that night, I guess I would say that I wasn’t sure that there really was an older sister in the house. The neighbours suggested the idea since they had seen an older girl around during the day, and it seemed very unlikely to me that the mother would have left a 6 and 4-year-old at home by themselves, but the mother does have a history (see the OP). When I asked Jill “is your sister here?” she said yes, when I asked if the sister was older she said yes, but then she was saying yes to almost everything I asked and she looked a little scared of me (I haven’t spoken to her much before.) I was figuring that maybe she was just saying yes to every question. I did send her in the house to get her sister and while we were talking she went inside several times and came out without anybody being with her. It seemed to me very odd that the sister could’ve been asleep the whole time - Johnny woke me twice by his crying (2:00 and 2:10) and my house is not right next door, it’s one over.
I wouldn’t go around the house knocking on windows. For one thing, their house (like mine) is two stories and the bedrooms are probably upstairs. Secondly, I would go in the open front door sooner that I would go into someone’s back yard. Getting in the back yard at night would seem to the occupant to be more of a suspicious activity than walking in the front door, I would think.
lieu, the new neighbour wife expressed no desire to go into the other house. Especially since I seemed to know the kids more than she did. She was the one who was most keen on calling the police.
Thalion, thanks for the law enforcement point of view. I’m in the greater Los Angeles area but in a suburban town so maybe the police have more time than I think. About a month ago my wife called the police about some kids in the park (another story) and they showed up in less than 10 minutes.
Gorsnak: I don’t get it. Something to do with having sex with the mother?
Freudian Slit: the children getting out is one thing. The older sister not hearing the child crying loudly in the street is another. Like I said, there is one house between my house and Jill and Johnny’s house and Johnny woke me up - twice!
A friend of mine gave me once another reason for double deadbolts. If a thief goes into your house through a window, and he can open the door from inside, he can carry things out through a door. If he can’t open the door from the inside, then he has to carry things out through the window which
a) would be more suspicious to anyone seeing him and
b) would be harder so he’s less likely to take your big-screen TV for example.
I’m pretty sure it was a “Who’s on First” joke.
In the teenager’s defense, when the policeman at one point asked her “Don’t you care about your brother and sister?” she answered “Yeah, I care.” I was waiting for the " :rolleyes: whatever" to finish the sentence but it didn’t appear. I can’t wait till my boys are teenagers.
Quoted for truth, and thank God for it. And thank you, Thalion, for your service.
Arnold (I hope you don’t mind my using your first name), you did exactly the right thing. Susie is a woman doing everything in her power to ensure that her children wind up just as fucked-up and irresponsible as she is, and has done yeoman’s work on her seventeen year old daughter already. I suspect if you added the IQ of the whole family together with Susie’s boyfriend’s added in for bonus points, you wouldn’t reach triple digits.
But if there is anything in the world people like this can see, it is an opportunity to shift the blame. And you can bet your sweet Aunt Fannie that if you were able to cause a synapse to close in that pint of sludge on top of Susie’s brain stem, she would shift to insisting the police arrest you for endangering her precious brood with the well-practiced ease of a hooker slipping out of her underpants.
I look forward to an appearance of Jill and Johnny on The Jerry Springer Show, Susie and her boyfriend on Cops, or the whole fucking family to run for public office.
Regards,
Shodan
:smack: How could I miss that? That’s exactly what I was thinking when the police and the 17-year-old were having their verbal sparring exchange.
Like you, I’m also quoting for truth. I’m also quoting to let you know that I’ll be stealing the bolded section.
Anybody over 1000 posts can call me by my first name. Thanks for the support.
After reading this entire thread, all I can say is…
…There’s Fletch novels? I had no idea!
runs off to Amazon
But of course. They’re like the Chevy Chase movie, only funny.
Yeah, this woman is Jerry Springer type, you don’t want to get into any drama with her. She’ll press every advantage and turn your life into a nightmare for pointing out her flaws. Definitely you handled it correctly.
Yep, it’s certainly a possibility. But the *probability *of a fire at that end of the apartment (away from the kitchen) was, let’s say, n, and the probability of the kid wandering out of his apartment onto the busy City of Chicago street in front of the building (Devon Ave, for those in the know) was 99.9% in any one night. n<99.9%, so their choice wasn’t that difficult.
Besides, when the kid finally *did *set fire to the place, it was when his uncle was recuperating from open heart surgery on the couch. So there was supervision present. 
(Note to Og: thank you for my boring, well behaved children.)
Does that mean I can call you Arn? 