Trust, Access, and Alarms

Trust, Access, and Alarms

This one really taught me a lesson. I messed up, and I had to learn the hard way.

I had a job at a preschool. I just needed to replace some finger guards on the doors. Easy job. I only work after hours because I don’t work around children. I already had the code to get in, and I called ahead to tell them I was coming. Everything seemed good.

So I drive 45 minutes in the cold, walk up to the door, enter the code, and open it. Right away I hear a quiet beep-beep. I think, “Oh, someone must have forgotten to turn off the alarm.”

But then it turns into a LOUD siren. At that moment I knew the police were on the way.

I had two choices: leave and deal with it later, or stay and explain. I decided to stay. I didn’t want to waste the police’s time or make things worse.

The officer arrived. He was cool and respectful. I showed him my tools and work order and explained everything. He understood, and he let me continue my work. I found out the manager had turned the alarm off earlier—but the cleaning crew came later and turned it back on. So the problem wasn’t really my fault, but it still happened on my time.

Now you’d think I’d learn from that, right? But nope. I made the same mistake again at a different school. This time I asked the manager to make sure the alarm was off. They said they would. Something in my gut told me to ask for the alarm code anyway, just to be safe. But I trusted them.

And sure enough—same thing. Beep-beep. Siren. Police.

That was the moment I realized: the first time is a lesson. The second time is on me.

Now, I always double-check. I make sure I have clear permission, the alarm code, and the manager understands exactly when I’m coming. If you are going to be in a building after hours, you must have trust and communication. And if you can’t be trusted to be in that building alone—then you shouldn’t be there at all.

Good morning, good evening, and good night.

Lesson learned.