A husband and wife briefly escaped from a secure memory unit at an assisted living facility in Lebanon, Tennessee last month by using military experience with Morse code to decipher and memorize the code to an electronic door lock, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

Once back at the Elmcroft, staff were curious about how the couple had escaped from the facility’s memory unit, which is secured by a locked door with an electronic keypad. The man “previously worked with Morse code in the military” and was able to use this experience to learn the door code by listening as staff punched numbers into the keypad.

Tennessean, April 30, 2021

This story is too surreal, honestly, how ingenious was this ex-military guy? Wow! That said, do your keypads “beep” when the numbers are plugged in? It is definitely something that would be unusual and likely would never happen again but worth paying attention to. Remember, residents living with dementia may not understand what you are saying but they have memories that go way back! Stay well, mask as appropriate and stay tuned!