Pay Attention!

I was thinking of ridiculous experiences from the past, and remembered one Sunday afternoon when I went to my office to work on some projects. I was single at the time, and had no life, so I would often go to the office on the weekends. It was a bright, sunny day and I decided to do stop by the office to get a couple of things. I entered the building at about noon. I doodled around for about 30 minutes and turned to leave. I opened the door to the main hallway to hear shouting, "STOP, PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!! DO IT!!! NOW!!! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!!

Imagine hearing all of that simultaneously from two policemen as you stare down the barrels of their .38-caliber pistols. I was standing there, disoriented and confused. Both officers have me in their sites, with both hands on their guns as if they were at the shooting range and I was that black target with the white silhouette. It was like being on Law and Order, and I was the "perp."

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. I said something really intelligent like, "holy shit!" as my hands went into the air. Once the officers determined that they were in control, they asked me who I was and what I was doing there. I told them that it was my office etc. They were eventually satisfied that I was the person I claimed to be and told me that I had tripped the alarm. They told me that no one was supposed to be in the building without first calling the security service to alert them. I told them that I was unaware of that. They seemed convinced that I was clueless and escorted me out of the building.

It turned out that my organization had made some changes in its security procedures. One of them was to connect the door sensors to some security company that called the police department if the alarms were triggered. Everyone was notified; I just didn't pay attention. I paid the price with my cardio-vascular and sympathetic nervous systems. Now, anytime I get a notice from security about the building being closed, I flash on my experience. I pay attention - at least to that.