The Notebook

Nope, no Ryan Gosling/Rachel McAdams slow-motioning through a rainstorm here. Just a super-weird happening that completely unsettled our household this week.

The Notebook (on my striped pants)

Right before bed midweek, Nate went out to give the new grass (yay!) a drink and found a blue notebook placed carefully on a planter table next to the front door. It absolutely reeked of smoke and one side was covered in dust and dirt. No one had knocked, no doorbell, and we had come through that door mere hours before. Unsettling moment #1.

Bringing it inside, we noticed a name and date on the spine of the notebook, and opening it, an entire case file for an accident. Medical records, legal documents... Pretty much any and every piece of paper you would never want in the wrong hands. Unsettling moment #2.

My brain went immediately to A) stolen property has been left at our door, and/or B) the people who used to live here are somehow involved with this accident. Since we still get their mail all the time, I was hoping for the latter, but we know their names, and nothing seemed to be connected. Regardless, I called the police department (closed) and 9-1-1 to ask for police assistance (the operator couldn't hear me for who knows why, and she hung up on me without sending assistance - Unsettling moment #3?), and finally resorted to emailing the police department from their website. Luckily Investigator Joe (really.) wrote me back the next morning and offered two drop-off locations for us to bring the notebook.

The Drop-Off

We did that next day - no harm, no foul - and had a MUCH better night's sleep for it that evening. The scenario came to light of someone dropping the notebook near our house - in the road or on the adjacent path - and a good Samaritan making sure it got... somewhere..., and I'm going with that because honestly, it just makes my stomach unclench.

I want to note: Inspector Joe made it a point to tell me that my [attempted] call to 9-1-1 was the right decision. He said that the public is over-trained that 9-1-1 is for extreme emergency cases only, when really, he said, it's for any time you need face-to-face contact with an officer. Isn't that a great thing to know? Of course I will still be judicious, but I don't feel like someone needs to be in serious, life-endangering peril for me to make that call now. Thought you might like to know too!