True, I have 3 daughters and ive never had any such problem touch wood!
In all honesty I think they were lucky the police were involved because if there was someone else involved in it with the wrong intentions The police would of found it on the computers for sure!

But how will I contact my child if I need to? Answer: Call the office!

Yep, same as previous generations did with no problems at all and if a parent that is usually home at the time kids arrive home from school has to go out for an emergency, the kids just wait on the front porch until the parent comes home again. It worked when I was a kid. There was also a phone box outside the school and I had to keep 10c in my bus pass wallet for emergency calls to home.

We didn't worry about this nonsense about having to be in 24 hour contact with others back then. It was just expected that people would contact others when they were able to.

My grandparents didn't have the phone on because there was a red phone box right outside their house. Four pence or sixpence for the occasional a call was way cheaper than paying line rental. If we ever needed to contact them we rang their next door neighbour who yelled over the fence for them to call us.

Gtc,
Boy could I tell you a story about that!!
My old man thought like that too! No phone in the house at home!
He had a real thing about it and was old school and saw it as a unnecessary, It was a common way of thinking back then. I was the youngest of 4 siblings and one night when I was 4 years old , very late on Australia day he had a heart attack and my brother who was 10 years older than me ran to the public phone box to call an ambulance which was in the next street. My brother suffered from croup and by the time he got back from running to the phone box he was having trouble breathing and so they put him in the bathroom full of steam to clear his lungs. He was ok and out grew the croup as he got older. But my old man did not survive that night and he passed away from a massive heart attack.
The doctors said to us that even if the doctor had been in the room at the time Dad had the attack he could not of saved him.
But now as a Adult and a dad myself I can see how that run to the phone box effected my brother .
But the truth of the matter is my Dad was very old school and would not allow a phone in the house!!!!! Many people thought like that back then.
He was 45 years old when he passed away on that night.

Sorry to hear about you dad passing like that. My grandparents' Federation style house still stands, but the phone box right outside has long gone.

Ohh long time ago now G! moons ago!
Yes those phone boxes were great! I see them for sale sometimes ,around $3000