Doorbell rings at 3:10 AM. What are your first thoughts?

[havocmom]

Bet long lost luggage is not at the top of your list

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/07/500809.aspx

It was the doorbell, and this time the dogs heard it too. The house erupted into chaos.

"It’s three o’clock in the morning," my wife said. She has a flair for the obvious.

"I know," I almost shouted, while scrambling out of bed. "This can’t be good."

NBC Correspondent gets a 3:10 AM wake up delivery of luggage lost weeks before. :wtf:

American Airlines sent a women out to deliver luggage in the middle of the friggin night?

Let's home some top exec of American Airlines loses a bag and gets that sort of treatment! They seem to have some questionable decision making somewhere in the organization. Not pissing people off fast enough with regular airport hassles and such, gotta wake them in the middle of the night too?

Huh???

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear havocmom!

Well, this sort of nonsense is why we have an intercom!

We just go to it, and press the "outside" button so we can talk...

That takes care of it!

We do sometimes have door-to-door types at dinnertime, when it's dark, and we just send them away by using the intercom...

I cannot believe the idiots at American Airlines would pull such a stunt!

What a terrible thing to do!

[rug]

2. They were trying to get there by 7 pm.

[triguy46]

3. I live in the middle of nowhere. Out here, our first response would be...

"Get the gun." No one, and I mean no one, ever come out here unnanounced, except fedex and UPS. In fact when the kids were little, if the doorbell rings, they would run to their room and hide.

We have had 2 weird visitors in our 26 years here, one a "My car broke down can I come in and use the phone?" Answer, "Stay there, I will bring the cordless to you."

The second, "We're here to buy the mattress."

"Sorry, we don't have a mattress to sell."

"But, I'm here to buy the mattress." This continued for about a minute. I then notice in his truck is a little old lady, I walk over to the truck and she is saying "Blah, blah, blah," (literally, she was saying 'blah,'). "Let's get the fuck out here, if he doesn't want to sell the mattress."

I know this sounds like the antithesis of the friendly farmer, but we are so far off any significant road, that safety is first.

[havocmom]

4. You only have the peace and safety you can guarentee yourself

Especially true for us folks in rural areas.

We have a HUGE county, area wise. People? Not so much. Three law enforcement officers period. That means each gets an 8 hour shift every day of the year, or one guy takes a double so another can have a day off.

If anyone showed up at our door at that hour, response would be the same.

There have been robberies here. People tend to take care of business themselves. To call 911 could mean a 1 hour wait if nothing was going on and the duty officer just happened to be midway point in the county to where you called from. Or, it could mean a 2 - 12 hour wait, depending on what other incidents may be going on. You best be able to protect yourself, and that means middle of the night visitors would be shittin their drawers if they showed up unannounced.

And about the airlines sending a lone female out to meet strangers in the middle of the night...:wtf: are they thinking? One might have a case for putting employees at unreasonable risk.

[Midlodemocrat]

5. That happened to us once. It was a friend who had

gotten locked out of his house and didn't have his cell and wanted to call his wife to let him in.

Strange, but true.

[havocmom]

10. Hmmm, why didn't he knock on his own door rather than your's to call his wife?

Maybe she locked him out and he wanted some peer pressure on her? ;)

I can see a friend in need at 3 AM, but an Airline employee delivering luggage that had been lost for weeks? Makes no sense.

I have a friend with a playful husband. She finally got tired of his running around and changed the locks one evening while he was out. She wouldn't let him back in.

He went to sleep in the family business, which did not have sleeping facilities. His mom opened up early, tripping over him asleep on the floor. She told him if he would behave better that sort of thing wouldn't happen. :D

[DS1]

21. see #20

and it was frickin cold outside, and I wasn't dressed for it.

[zingaro]

6. Happened here once, too.

Not long after we'd bought our current house. It was the local PD looking for the previous owners - to inform them that their 17-year-old daughter (who had not changed her DL address yet) had been killed in a car accident.

So, yep, I'd assume something horrible if my doorbell rang at 3:something am.

[supernova]

7. Call 911, I live in a rural area

and you don't just drop by in the dead of night. Usually there's a bad reason for it.

Luckily, that's never happened to me. But I do think about what I would do in such a situation. That's one reason I have a telephone right by my bed. I would also climb out the window.

[Xipe Totec]

8. Another drunken Scot, asking to be blown away

That's the first thing that crossed my mind.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E4D71530F932A15752C0A962958260

[havocmom]

11. LOL

I would be less inclined to shoot if he was in a kilt.

[Robb]

9. I about tripped over the luggage on my front porch once

The airline delivered it in the middle of the night, but we have no doorbell. So they left it.

To be fair, it's the kind of neighborhood (small, small town) where the UPS and FedEx guys do the same thing.

[havocmom]

12. Our FedEx and UPS guys know where everybody is if they aren't home

It's hell this time of year when they send in extra help. The place is pretty weird. Most people don't even know they HAVE a street address ;)

Our UPS guy couldn't find me at the usual places the other day, so he tied a small-ish package to the door handle, Didn't want the neighborhood hounds to carry if off :D Dogs just about outnumber people in our village.

[triguy46]

13. Our Fed Ex and UPS guys are the only humans...

in rural Payne county during the day, everyone else is in town working. Really seems odd, now that you mention it, they have somewhat assumed the role of the RFD postman of mythology.

[datasuspect]

14. "click clack"

[DarkTirade]

15. A month or two ago I wouldn't have thought twice.

But that's because I usually got home from work around then.

Of course, a month or two ago I also lived in an apartment that didn't have a doorbell... so that might confuse me a bit.

[Breeze54]

16. Is my shotgun loaded?

:shrug:

[kedrys]

17. Where are my pants?

I know where the weapons are.

[havocmom]

23. LOL That would be Havocdad too

Some body would be staring at both ahem three barrels and probably the dog coming along with Havocdad's pants... (we have an underwear retreiver)

:rofl:

[Q3JR4]

18. I would think to myself,

GD roomatemate forgot his f*****g key again, roll over and see what the devil was going on (provided they struck the door long enough and loud enough to actually wake me up).

[ElizabethDC]

19. A few months ago, my luggage was delivered at 2 AM

frankly, I was just thankful to have my luggage back. I'd rather they wake me up in the middle of the night than have to wait a week for my stuff.

[havocmom]

24. But what kind of SOB boss sends a lone female employee out to deliver

without at least calling the owners of lost luggage asking if a middle of the night delivery was ok? In the case sited, the luggage had been missing for a month.

[ElizabethDC]

32. Yeah, I have no idea.

They didn't check with us if the middle of the night was delivery was okay, though it was the same night of my flight.

[ElizabethDC]

33. Delete dupe. n/t

[DS1]

20. I've been the guy on the outside of the door once

I'd locked myself out the house, and simply wanted a phone. They called TripleA, thinking I needed to get in my car. The towtruck showed up, I waived them off, and simply smashed a window to get back in.

[AlCzervik]

22. i would have slept right though it.

[mwooldri]

25. My thoughts? Whose died. nt

[bridgit]

26. 1st thought? This better By-God be Publisher's Clearing House with a big fat check!!

:rant:

[Oeditpus Rex]

27. 'Goddamned dyslexic insomniac Wejosha's Hivnetses!'

:grr:

[havocmom]

39. ::choke::

:rofl:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. When I lived in college towns, the doorbell ringing at 3:10AM meant

that some extremely drunk fraternity member couldn't find his way back to his own apartment and was randomly ringing doorbells in the hope that one of his roommates was still awake.

[Ghost in the Machine]

29. My first thought: "When the f**k did I get a doorbell!?!?!?!"

I don't think I've ever even lived in a place with a doorbell...

[MonkeyFunk]

30. That happened to me years ago

USAir lost my luggage. A week after the fact, they rang the doorbell at 2:30 am, left the luggage on the steps, and left.

[krispos42]

31. "Somebody had better be dying"

Would be my first thought. Not dead, because if they're dead, it can wait until daylight.

Dying. As in, they won't make it to daylight and I'd better get my ass to the hospital NOW!!!



Of course, I don't go to bed until about 4:30am or so, but I get the gist of it! :-)

[Kucinich4America]

36. Slight modifciation to that....

Somebody better be dying......or whomever is at the door WILL be! :grr:

[havocmom]

38. that's exactly how I answer any phone calls at that time

[JVS]

34. Open the door, disco police

[GoddessOfGuinness]

35. My first thoughts? Something's happened to a loved one...

But I'd not open the door to anyone I didn't know unless I saw a legitimate police badge. In fact, I might pick up a cleaver before I answered...just in case.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

37. Home invasion

The doorbell ringing at any time of the day unnerves me -so much so that I generally don't answer it. 3AM would have me hiding and preparing to call the police

[regularguy]

40. The milkman?

"Democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the milkman."
-Winston Churchill

[bertha katzenengel]

41. Cat - sick, hit-by-car, rescued kitten, etc.

It rang at 9:30 one night and it was my sister and her kids. Surprise. From California.