Something to consider...

[EvoXguy]

The story confused me but I've been sick

[audiophil2]

i tend to have a gun near me at bedtime. takes all of 2 seconds to get that in absolute silence. my phone is next to the gun so i then grab that. with both if those in my hands i then walk to my my kids room and secure it. then i look at the camera footage on my phone. based on that i decide to call the police or leave my kids room to further investigate or deal with the issue.

there are other security measures no one really needs to know about. the one thing i wont do is focus on the front door. that causes tunnel vision and i have lots of time to move forward once i know the second floor is secured and there is nothing on the main floor i care about.

the biggest security issue i had was when my neighbor mistook me for a home invader. i normally am a homebody but my friend dropped me off around 2am one night and before i got within 20 feet of my front door my neighbor ran out of his garage yelling not to go into my house. i asked him why and as soon as he recognized me he said he thought i was breaking in and did not want a big gunfight. my buddy almost pulled his gun on my neighbor thinking he was drugged out. we all had an awkward laugh then went to our own homes.

[TurboS600]

I got to about post #10 and then I realized...



Is OP any relation to Donald Babbett?

[Hooligan]

I would go for the door and attempt to lock. From the slow jiggle, sounds like person was trying to be quiet and move slow, would not expect the door to slam shut. But, from the door I could also get back to bedroom easily in my place.

[smashycrashy]

Move towards the door and it flys open, then what? Or the person is surprised by the force and is armed and fires through the door. While the most likely outcome is the person runs off, if it’s a bad person you could be faced with a physical altercation at the least. Time and space, get armed and let them know you are alerted is the safest course of action.

[baggss]

BTW, what came of all this? Did you yell out and tell the person to leave? Did the person leave of his/her own accord? Was it your celebrity chef coming in early to cook you a special breakfast?

Inquiring minds want to know...

OK enough responses... time for the rest of the story.

Thanks for moving it. After I posted I realized that it was probably in the wrong forum. It makes me chuckle how silly people get when asked a pretty simple question. I find it interesting how many people immediately believe I'm trolling just because they don't want to answer the simple question. It wasn't hard...The incident has caused me to revaluate some things, maybe some don't want to question their own readiness or think about how things can go sideways....or how things may not always appear to be what they seem.

Ok, so what did happen?

I had to decide to either fight or retreat. My instinct was, as several people recommended, to rush the door and force it closed. I'm a big guy so throwing my weight against the door forced the person on the other side back, off my porch and onto the walkway that leads to my front door. I was able to lock both the dead bolt and the door knob while yelling at the intruder to "GET THE **** OUT OF MY HOUSE!!". Once I began to move the dogs, still barking, moved out of my and out of the way of the now rapidly closing door.

Once door was secured, and the dogs were still barking and going nuts, I heard a voice outside the door calling my name. My response was "WHO THE **** IS OUT THERE!?". Turns out it was my dog sitter. I looked through the peephole and indeed, it was my dog sitter. I unlocked and opened the door and the dogs ran out to greet her. She was as shook up as I was when someone screamed at her to get the **** out and slammed the door on her. Fortunately, she wasn't hurt by the slamming door.

Seems there was a miscommunication between her and my wife concerning when we were leaving that day (something else I left out purposely). My wife had texted her the previous afternoon and told her we were leaving Wednesday later than planned, at 5:30, meaning PM but she read 0530 as in AM. She was coming to do her morning check on the dogs and have her breakfast with them as she does when we have her watching them.

No, my door was not unlocked. No, my door was not open. No, the dog had not magically opened the door. Yes, she had a key but I couldn't hear the sound of the keys and the lock opening over the barking of the dogs. Yes, I was still half asleep right up to the point where I realized my door was opening. Then I was AWAKE! I left that out of my post on purpose.

We all think about being armed, or not armed, and having to fight off an intruder in our homes. That's good and we should continue to do so. What happens when the perceived intruder isn't really an intruder though? She did have access to my house and she honestly thought I was not at home. Coming out armed would have, at the very least, cost me a dog sitter and ruined my plans for the week and at the worst ended badly all the way around. Having access to a firearm in the kitchen area could have resulted in the same. Yet I still feel that my choices were limited not having a access to a weapon, at least up to the point where I realized the threat was not a threat.

So the things for me to consider are:

1) Everyone who recommends having dogs as a first line of defense is actually on point. Had this not been a non-threat I know at least one of my dogs would have gone out the door aiming to hurt the person on the other side. The other one would have followed, but how much she would have done is open to question.

2) If I had come out of the bedroom armed and watched the situation unfold, I might have taken a different course of action. This thought bothers me.

3) If it hadn't been someone who had access to the house and was an actual intruder being armed would have been the better option, but I wasn't. Makes me consider stashing a weapon closer to the door, but I realize that in this situation having access to a gun immediately might have been a bad thing. This also bothers me.

4) This incident is making me rethink home defense regardless. Perhaps my EDC needs to go into my nightstand drawer when I get home instead of atop my safe in the closet (which isn't really a closet and has a door that leads to my utility room etc.). Maybe I need to learn that my first instinct when both dogs run out barking in the middle of the night needs to be to grab my EDC regardless of where it is as well as the flashlight (which was on my nightstand already in this case) before I leave the bedroom. Maybe I need to stash a firearm in my living room or kitchen so I don't have to worry about having to retreat to arm myself. Lots of maybes. In the almost 6 years I've lived in this house I've never had anything like this happen. Hopefully I never will again.

Lots to for me to consider after this incident.

[smashycrashy]

2) If I had come out of the bedroom armed and watched the situation unfold, I might have taken a different course of action. This thought bothers me.

3) If it hadn't been someone who had access to the house and was an actual intruder being armed would have been the better option, but I wasn't. Makes me consider stashing a weapon closer to the door, but I realize that in this situation having access to a gun immediately might have been a bad thing. This also bothers me.

What would have changed if you were armed, you wouldn't have fired without identifying your target..

The gun closest to me while sleeping isn't my EDC, it is my home defense gun with a TLR-1, my EDC doesn't have a light due to bulk and the expectation that most self defense scenarios outside of the home are close range affairs with the target already identified.

I still stand by the notion that time and space are your friend until you get armed up and sort through what is going on.. flipping on a light and verbalization help not only this particular scenario but really the general case scenarios as well. It would take a highly motivated individual or group to go into an alerted household..

[0ddl0t]

In the scenario you laid out, I would pretty much have done the same (kicked the door closed, yelled, used that new time to hastily retreat and arm myself).

But I would not get up to investigate a bump in the night without my nightstand gun or at least a club...

Why were you so groggy? By the time I'm out of bed, I'm alert. Had you imbibed the night before? Taken ambien or something?

2) If I had come out of the bedroom armed and watched the situation unfold, I might have taken a different course of action. This thought bothers me.

3) If it hadn't been someone who had access to the house and was an actual intruder being armed would have been the better option, but I wasn't. Makes me consider stashing a weapon closer to the door, but I realize that in this situation having access to a gun immediately might have been a bad thing. This also bothers me.

I don't understand why having a gun in this situation would have been a bad thing. You yell "FREEZE!!!" "WHO'S THERE?!!" before the door opens. She freaks a little bit, says "dogsitter," and you put your gun down before she opens the door the rest of the way...

[SonofWWIIDI]

[njineermike]

As was stated before, if the dogs are pissed off, dont answer the door without your gun. My dogs are really good judges of when something bad is about to happen.

[baggss]

What would have changed if you were armed, you wouldn't have fired without identifying your target..

What would have changed is I probably would have lost a good dog sitter. Finding someone you can trust not just with your pets but with your home while you are away isn't always easy.

In the scenario you laid out, I would pretty much have done the same (kicked the door closed, yelled, used that new time to hastily retreat and arm myself).

But I would not get up to investigate a bump in the night without my nightstand gun or at least a club...

Why were you so groggy? By the time I'm out of bed, I'm alert. Had you imbibed the night before? Taken ambien or something? .

As I said previously, it's nit that uncommon for at least one of the dogs to bark at something at night. Most times we just ignore it since its a neighbor coming home late, a cat on the lawn, the wind and so on. Not on any meds that affect my sleep, I just really want expecting anything like this.

There is however a club hanging just behind the from door. One of those wooden ones that they sell at truck stops for tire thumping. Would have been a good weapon but I forgot that it was there....

I don't understand why having a gun in this situation would have been a bad thing. You yell "FREEZE!!!" "WHO'S THERE?!!" before the door opens. She freaks a little bit, says "dogsitter," and you put your gun down before she opens the door the rest of the way...

Most likely you are correct.

As was stated before, if the dogs are pissed off, dont answer the door without your gun. My dogs are really good judges of when something bad is about to happen.

Yep. In this case they weren't pissed off, they were excited to see her....

[tonyxcom]

Pics of dog sitter or this didn't happen.

[larkja]

I called it; BS scenario.

You left out a pretty important bit of information. Shame on me for biting on this one. In your OP, you could easily have said, "I always lock my door at night." Which means, somebody had a key trying to get in. An intruder would not have stuck around with the porch light on and noise inside; an intruder would not have stuck around with dogs barking (easier targets elsewhere).

Which means, not an intruder at all.

Lame scenario because you didn't include all the info

[TMB 1]

Need to learn your dogs barks. My dogs have different sound to their bark for strangers, people they know, animals(deer, cats, other dogs, etc... If you pay attention you'll get to where you can tell the difference in bark and what they barking at.

[onelonehorseman]

How is this thread not in OT? It surely has that flavor.