4:20 a.m. scare

At 4:20 a.m. this morning, I heard a knock on the door. It woke me up, but my eyes stayed closed. A few seconds later, I heard another knock on the door. This time, I knew I wasn't dreaming, and I opened my eyes. I turned to Billy and shook him a little. He had not heard anything because he was wearing ear plugs and ear muffs (that's a whole other story*). I told him that someone was knocking on our door. Just then, we heard a third knock on the door. Billy put his glasses on, put the chain on the door, and opened it slightly. The man told him that he had just gotten a call from his wife asking him to pick her up from the Machine Shed, but his car was out of gas and he needed $15. Billy thought this whole story sounded made-up, so he asked him a bunch of questions, and the story did change a little. The man said he moved into our apartment complex about 4 months ago, into Apt. 16. That's when we knew for sure that he was full of it. We knew that wasn't true because there is no apartment 16 and 4 months ago all the apartments were rented. But Billy decided to give him the benefit of the doubt about the rest of his story and gave him some money to help him out.
When we went back to bed, Billy said he wanted to call the police and report the man, just in case he was going from door to door, doing the same thing to everyone in these apartments and elsewhere. I told him he should not worry about it - I just wanted to sleep. But then Billy pointed out that the man had gotten through the main door of the apartments. Maybe he was investigating which apartments to rob sometime in the future. Maybe our apartments would get a reputation for giving money away. Maybe he was now knocking on all the doors of the townhomes that are right by us. That's when I started to get scared and let Billy call the police. The woman Billy talked to stopped him about mid-story and finished it for him. Apparently, the man had been doing this all night, telling the same story over and over again, and a few people had called the police to report him.
I find it so... sad that so many people cannot be trusted. He was dishonest and took advantage of many people last night. But in all honesty, I feel much better having given him money than not. Who knows what kind of person he could turn out to be. I would prefer giving him money, be on his good side, and be left alone, than not giving him money, be on his bad side, and risk our own safety. Plus, I guess it doesn't really matter what he needed the money for. We had an opportunity to help someone, and we did. If he used it on alcohol or drugs, that's too bad for him because the sin is on him. But if he used it to buy food for his family, then I'm glad we were able to help.
I just can't stand the fact that maybe one day someone will really be in need of help and will be turned down because there are so many dishonest people in the world. Honest people are paying the price for all the dishonest people who have gotten away with so much. And, in all reality, it is impossible to help everyone who asks for it. But it is much easier to say "Sorry I can't help you" in the Walmart parking lot than at your own apartment. It is scary to know that some guy with doubtful intentions knows where you live.
This got us thinking that the "I'm out of gas" story is a popular one, so maybe if this happens again, we could tell the person that we're sorry we don't have any cash on hand and offer to drive them to where they need to go. I wonder how they would react then. Would they back out? Would their story change? Would they run off?
This also made us realize a few things. 1) We need to make sure to lock our door at all times, 2) We should not answer the door in the middle of the night, 3) We need a peep hole, 4) The main door needs to be fixed so that only the people who live here can get in, and 5) We need to get a gun! If I were attacked right now, I would be totally helpless. But if I owned a gun, I would feel safe in knowing that I could defend myself.

*NOW I feel like I need to explain this whole ear plugs and ear muffs story. About a week or two ago, I apparently started snoring. I never snored in my whole life, but according to Billy I started recently and it is LOUD. So until last night, Billy would shake me a little or lift my chin up to keep me from snoring. It helped for about 2-3 seconds, but then I would start snoring again. Finally, yesterday Billy went to the store and bought a bunch of ear plugs and ear muffs, and they work! If it hadn't been for that man waking us up at 4:20 a.m., Billy would have had his first good night sleep in 2 weeks. Unfortunately for us, too, the sun rose about 30-40 min. later. We've definitely gotten used to not getting very much sleep recently.