Bump in the night

[Nick Adams]

I wondering why your dog basically did nothing?

Dogs are great. But most of what we consider 'well socialized' dogs have been taught not to bark, and not to bite.

[pastureofmuppets]

The best thing is you are still here to review what happened, and have noted mistakes made.

A lot of people don't seem to do that.

Dogs are great. But most of what we consider 'well socialized' dogs have been taught not to bark, and not to bite.

That's just a training issue. Obviously it can be dog to dog, but it's simple enough to teach a dog to give one or two barks when someone is on the property and at a door.


Fun story, completely unrelated... we had neighbors not too long ago that had an Alsatian. It barked incessantly. If I went in the yard it's head would pop and it would go nuts at me. It would start early in the morning and keep me awake, it would go all afternoon while I was trying to work. Eventually i went and had a word with the neighbor. He did that thing for a while where if i went and knocked he would bring it inside. Eventually, he got annoyed at my being annoyed by his antisocial attitude to his pain in the *** dog. When he did this, I told him he should maybe think about training it. These are the actual words out of his mouth:

"It can't be trained, it's a guard dog!"

I shook my head, walked away and sought other ways of fixing the problem.

Point being, how is it designated a guard dog if it hasn't been trained to be a guard dog? And how is a guard dog of any use if it just barks all day and most of the night?

[finyllw]

To Police,

I have a gun in my hand - I'm going after him, get here quick, bye.

They will be there in mere minutes.

[romadant]

To Police,

I have a gun in my hand - I'm going after him, get here quick, bye.

They will be there in mere minutes.

I do believe this would speed them up.

My concern would be - if you end up having to shoot the intruder, the prosecutor might try to use "I'm going after him" to make a case against you.

[lorax3]

I have a gun in my hand - I'm going after him, get here quick, bye.

Not a good thing to say on a 911 call, imo. Remember that 911 calls are recorded, and in the case of a shooting they WILL use your statements against you.

If there is a criminal or civil trial the other side will project in big bold letters "I'm going after him" and make the jury think you are a blood thirsty maniac. (Not implying anything to you personally, just an example).

[SVT-40]

How did the crook get into your garage?

You might consider "hardening" your garage, and house for that matter..Add a few motion lights Ect.

If a crook is comfortable going inside your garage while you were home you can bet he did some recon before this particular incident...

In fact in all likelihood the crook lives within a few blocks or less from you....

[titan2]

Well, how much loot did the BG make off with since you surprised him so and he bolted out the back door and over what I'd guess was a six foot fence?

[SDM44]

Why open the door, removing a safety barrier between you and them and confront when no life was in danger?

If you wanted to scare them off and not wait for cops, just yelling probably would have worked.

Exactly my thinking.

If you really wanted to scare them, should've had a shotgun and racked the slide behind the locked door, then hunkered down away from the door in case they were crazy enough to come through it wanting a piece of your action

[barrage]

Sounds pretty good to go with the exception of calling the police. The police are NOT your friends, especially if they know you have the capacity to defend yourself.

[SVT-40]

Sounds pretty good to go with the exception of calling the police. The police are NOT your friends, especially if they know you have the capacity to defend yourself.

Yeah.. Don't call the cop's.... Just shoot the crook, and bury him in your yard

[the_natterjack]

Stay alive for your family. That is the ONLY thing that you need to worry about.

Next time be more cunning. Don't expose yourself to danger.

- Brian

[barrage]

Yeah.. Don't call the cop's.... Just shoot the crook, and bury him in your yard

I don't recall the part where the OP says he shot anybody. With the exception of maybe letting the local government know that there's an ******* running around breaking into people's garages to look out for, he handled it himself without incident the way it should be done more often.

[SactoDoug]

My situation is different from yours. I cannot say what I would do in your situation.

For me, if I hear anything go bump in the night, I check to make sure my wife is next to me first. Then I grab my shot gun with flashlight attached and head to my security monitor. I turn on the screen and look at my cameras. I have cameras that cover every entrance and window to my house and every approach. If everything is OK, I put the shotgun away and go back to bed. If anything is amiss, I will take appropriate action.

My home surveillance system is well worth the $400 I spent for it the the piece of mind and deterrence. I installed it years ago when strange things were happening at night in my yard. Small things were stolen and some of my trees were being vandalized. That stopped immediately when I installed the cameras.

[navin r]

This posted above: "How did the crook get into your garage?"
I'm not criticizing the OP at all but my place is very, very difficult to get into, all of us should have our places as secure as possible, stop this sort of B.S. before it starts.

[WyattandDoc]

I would have opened the door and detained him at gun point. His decision on what happens next.