Ed and Susan lived in a middle class neighborhood of Houston, Texas. Susan was a fourth grade teacher at their neighborhood elementary school. Ed had a job working for one of the major petroleum companies in Houston. Susan needed to be at home throughout the week and Ed did a lot of travelling for his company. The neighborhood they lived in was sage, so they had never even considered a home security system. The separation was difficult sometimes, but they did what they had to do to pay their bills. As a result, they made the most of every weekend that they shared together.
Ed and Susan had met each other in Austin when they were attending the University of Texas. They met each other one Saturday night at a country and western bar in the city. Their personalities had really clicked and Susan gave Ed her number when he walked her home. Ed was a bit shy and even though he was attracted to Susan he had been hesitant to call her. After a couple of weeks, he finally worked up the nerve and invited her out to dinner. She accepted his offer, they had a great time together and they started seeing each other regularly.
Ed was from an upper class family and his father paid for his education and housing. Ed had found a job in Austin after graduating and he and Susan stayed there for a couple of years. Ed’s father continued to pay the housing bills, and he didn’t believe in premarital cohabitation, so Ed and Susan lived in separate apartments. Both their buildings had 24 hour security, so they knew that their belongings were always protected whenever they were away.
Ed left his job and went to graduate school and Susan went along with him. After graduating and after ten years of dating, he finally proposed. They were married and they moved into their new house. Ed started working for the petroleum company and he started travelling around the country quite frequently. On the nights he was away, they would always talk by telephone.
One week Ed went to Lubbock, Texas for a three day business trip. On the second night he was watching television in his hotel room and realized it was getting late and he hadn’t spoken with Susan. He tried calling the house and there was no answer. It was late for Susan to be out, but he thought maybe she was out with a friend and lost track of time. After a couple unanswered calls to her cell phone, Ed started getting worried. He called his parents and hers but no one had heard from her that day. He went to the airport and rented a car and started driving to Houston.
When he arrived at the house, it was early in the morning and her car was parked in the driveway. Something felt strange when he entered the house. He noticed that things were missing around the house. He really started to panic. He ran around the house looking for Susan. He found her in the basement tied up and very frightened. When she had calmed down, she explained what had happened.
Upon returning home from school she had come into the house and found two masked men gathering electronics, jewelry and anything of value. She had startled them and they quickly subdued her and put her in the basement. Ed was shocked and felt terrible for her. He realized that they neighborhood was not as safe as they had thought.
Later that day he called and got a home security service installed in the house. He knew that he would continue to travel frequently for work and with the home security system he would feel a lot more comfortable about leaving Susan at home alone. His only regret was that they hadn’t employed a company before, so Susan would have never had this terrible experience.
