Community Corner
Dog Locks Minnesota Woman Out Of Home In Frigid Cold
After being locked out of her home, this determined woman trekked through the snow and used her Ring Video Doorbell to call for help.
This post is sponsored and contributed by Ring, a Patch Brand Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author's own.
If you live in Minnesota, you know that winters can be frigid, to say the least. But can you imagine being locked out of your home in 20-degree weather in your pajamas? Lino Lakes resident Missy certainly can.
Missy was dog-sitting her niece’s pooch, Bandit, when the unthinkable happened. She went to let Bandit outside around 6 one morning — but when her German Shepherd, Coco, saw Missy holding a leash and realized it wasn’t for her, she got a bit jealous.
“I put the leash on Bandit, opened the sliding glass door, tried to keep Coco from going out on the deck,” she recalls. “And, I walked to the edge of the deck and I heard Coco jump up on the sliding glass door and I went back and noticed that Coco latched the sliding glass door locked.”
Missy suddenly found herself locked out of her home without her phone in the freezing cold. But that’s not all — her husband and three boys had just left for a hunting trip in Texas, so she was home alone and recently locked all the doors.
Missy’s first instinct was to panic, but she quickly transitioned into survival mode. “It was getting cold, so I decided I just needed to try to get in the front of the house,” she recalls. “I had to trudge through the back yard, up the hill, jump over the fence, landed in an 8-foot pile of snow and get out of that mess.”
After finally making it to the front of the house, Missy — wet and cold from the snow — remembered she had a Ring Video Doorbell and could use its Two-Way Talk to contact her husband, Rich.
“It took five rings for him to answer it, and he's always very calm, and I tried to be not hysterical, but I was thankful I could get ahold of somebody to help me figure out what I was gonna do to get back in my home,” says Missy.
Fortunately, Rich was able to reach Missy’s parents and also call a locksmith to help her get back into the house. “In the meantime, I could get in my garage and get a blanket. But, of course, I locked the door from the laundry room to the garage, so I couldn't get in the house,” says Missy. “My parents pulled up about 25 minutes later, and let me in the house.”
Although it was somewhat traumatic at the time, the Ring video* of the incident “was super hilarious,” Missy admits. “I hesitated on sharing it on social media at first, but then my husband goes, ‘If it brings people joy, why not?’"
Missy is especially thankful for her Ring Video Doorbell and not only for how it can help those who find themselves in a sticky situation. “Having the Ring Doorbell makes us feel like there's always an option to see who's at the door, so we don't have to answer it,” she says. “It's just comforting and a peace of mind.”
As for Missy’s feelings toward Coco, she initially thought, “I'm so mad at my dog right now.” However, her tune quickly changed for her lovable pet: “But then I know she loves me, and that she really, really just wanted to be with me,” Missy says.
Stay connected with family and friends — and help protect the people, pets and property you love — with Video Doorbells and Security Cameras from Ring.
* Ring Protect subscription required to record and save videos. Subscription sold separately. For more information on our subscription plans please visit https://ring.com/protect-plans.
