5 Locks and a Swimming Pool

I would rate this trap “high” on the difficulty scale.

About a week before Christmas we caught the kids practicing with a rope ladder outside KP3’s window. So we decided to give the kids the chance to use it. Zach built a wall of plywood with a door. On this door were 5 locks, which required 4 keys, and a combination. There was no way out except through the window. We then locked all the windows and doors except KP3’s window, so the kids would be required to go out the window, find the keys and then back IN through the window to open the door.

 

But there is more: just to make it a little more difficult. The locks were on the OUT side of the door. There were two small holes, one for a head and one for a hand. Thus it would be even more difficult open the door once they had found the keys… Tee hee hee, we were so cruel!

 

We left my dad’s cellphone just inside the plywood wall with a message that went off at 4:00 am. The message played the Mission Impossible music then instructed the kids to “get to Santa.” This was a code. Out back, was a large inflatable Santa Clause which had the next clue.

Near the Santa were five “gifts” one for each kid. They were clues to the location of the 4 keys and the combination.

1.     Golf ball: The key was hidden in the hole nearest to the house on the golf course

2.     Electrical Breaker: The key was hidden in the breaker box (taped to a very specific breaker that the kids would need to turn off to deactivate the motion detectors, more on that later)

3.     Snowman: The key was attached to the top of the inflatable snowman my parents had in the front yard.  Can you see the key there on his face?

4.     Swim shorts: This year, my sister KP2 was newly engaged and so we decided the Christmas trap would be something like an “initiation” for her fiancé. His key was sitting at the bottom of the pool. We actually tried to put the key UNDER a plate to make it harder, but it didn't quite work, you can see the small dot next to the decorative plate there in the bottom of the pool. 

5.     A candle: There were three decorative candles on the front porch; under each was one number of the combination. Once again another cruel move, how would they know which order the numbers were for the lock? They would have to try all combinations…. 6 folks. That is 6 different possible combinations.

As soon as the kids collected each of the keys, and opened the plywood door, there was a large note reading.

“STOP! Agent KP3, you did turn that breaker off right? For the motion detectors?” 

 

This move was a little below the belt, because obviously he would have already removed the key, and most likely would not remember WHICH breaker to turn off. But we couldn't help ourselves… the idea that he would be required to go BACK out the window to try and figure out which breaker to turn off was just too funny to us.

After that breaker was off, it would have been a home run to the Christmas Tree for the win….

Except that it didn't go according to plan… at all…

The very first clue for the kids was the cell phone playing music…. As soon as the kids heard the phone going off, they assumed we were trying to sabotage them, and they turned it off without even listening to the message. And thus did NOT hear the message to “get to Santa” and did NOT find the clues waiting there for them. They wandered around outside and found the key in the bottom of the pool, and the another key in the breaker box…. Until finally hours later they stumbled on the clues by the Santa Clause, and from there they found the remaining keys.

We slept in until 7:30 am. A record for the parents.

That being said, this trap goes down in history as a “win” for the kids in more than one way.