Today I thought I'd share a humorous story about one of the strangest things to happen to me in life....
It's was six years ago when my husband and I lived in South Dakota. It's the first time we ever lived in a town where we felt safe leaving our home unlocked when we would only be gone a short time. During our years in South Dakota I subscribed to the local paper and my favorite section was the local crimes articles. They were filled with criminal acts of minor offenses...underage drinking at college parties, bars serving underage college kids, drunk kids getting caught doing stupid things....you get the picture. The town we lived in really didn't have major crimes as an issue and I loved it. It was a wonderful feeling living in a town where you felt safe. We lived 10 minutes from the college we attended and it was a great time in our life.
Our home in South Dakota Years Ago
Anyways, it was one night in early spring when my husband and I realized we forgot to pay the electric bill. We knew we needed to put our payment in their overnight drop box or else we'd have to pay a late fee the next day. It was only a 10 minute drive from our house to drop the bill off. It was around 11:00 PM and we both were up for a ride so we loaded into the car and went off to pay the bill. We didn't lock the back door since we would be right back.
We had a nice ride and arrived home. We came in through the kitchen door and I headed to the bedroom and my husband to the living room. As I went in the bedroom I heard my husband yelling my name. He was yelling that there was someone in the house in a freaked out voice. I ran towards the living room, my heart pumping. There passed out on our couch was a drunk college student. He looked like a baby. His face was young and he looked like he was probably fresh out of high school. The kid was in a sitting position on our couch with his head hung forward passed out. He smelled like he took a bath in alcohol.
The Back Door To The Kitchen
My husband was just standing there staring at him, perplexed. I should explain...we'd heard myths of college students getting drunk and passing out in the wrong houses before. People in our town loved sharing stories of all the stupid things drunk kids did. When we saw this kid passed out on our couch my husband and I both knew....we were living the myth.
Instead of freaking out, my husband calmly woke the kid up. He was SOOO drunk!!! He thought our house was his friends house. He was slurring his words. My husband managed to get the guy to get his phone out and call a friend. After a the phone call the guy was ready to go meet his friend and his friend told him how to get to his house from where he was at. The kid left and my husband and I breathed a sigh of relief....
Not the end of the story...After 10 minutes my husband and I started talking and wondered if the kid was okay enough to get to his buddies house down the street. We decided to get in the car and drive down the street to check on him. As we walked out the door we saw the kid in the distance. He had walked around the block and ended up right back heading towards our house. Did I mention he was SOOOO drunk!!!
Park Near Our House Where The Kid Walked Around The Corner to Our Street
Picture is after some bad rain storms when the park flooded.
We loaded the kid in our car and drove him to his friends house. It was around five minutes from our house but a good ways down some curved roads. We waited until he was inside to head home. Looking back it was such a weird night but my husband and I agreed we got a great story out of it.
It never once crossed our minds to call the cops when we discovered the guy passed out on our couch. We knew from stories the guy was mostly likely a drunk college student who didn't mean any harm and probably got lost. No need to call the cops who would pick him up and possibly cause him problems for being underage. I hope the guy learned a lesson about drinking too much that night. Then again I highly doubt he even remembers the event he was so trashed.
Lessons Learned:
My husband and I started locking our doors every single time we left home after that. The kid was an innocent and didn't mean any harm but we didn't want anymore drunk kids wandering in our house. Months after the incident I'd be woken up to the sounds of a kid puking in our front yard after getting drunk. We got new neighbors across from us would throw keggers so our neighborhood was always littered with idiot drunk kids on weekends.
I hope my kid never goes off to college and gets so drunk she wanders into the wrong place. That guy was so lucky my husband and I are nice people. We took care of him. If he had wandered into someone else's home he might have had the cops called on him or worse. It's not safe to get that drunk.
I sometimes wonder what happened to the guy. I hope his college career went alright and he was successful. He was lucky that night. I hope he was more careful after that but we never even learned his name so we'll never know...
photo credit: all photos are my own
