Interesting Night


GreenhawK

New member
I had an interesting situation in the middle of the night Monday. It was the first really cold night of fall, so my Great Pyrenees was sleeping outside. He usually sleeps inside when it's warmer outside than inside. Anyway, he started going nuts. ( He is a great alarms system.) About 15 seconds later someone starts banging on the door. I immediately think it's one of my neighbors in an emergency. I have an elderly man next door, and I have a teenage girl that stays across the street by herself sometimes because her dad works nights. I got my G27 anyway because Duke wouldn't normally bark at them, and the neighbors would normally call if something happened. As I opened the door, I had my pistol hidden so that I wouldn't scare the crap out of my neighbor or the police if it was them. Well, it wasn't. It was some guy. As I opened the door, he was looking down and proceeded to try to step into my house. I closed the door blocking him, and said " who are you?" keeping my gun out of sight. He looked up at me and said that he was looking for James. I told him that no James lived here or anywhere in this neighborhood, and that I knew all the neighbors. He was very apologetic and backed away. I told him that he needs to tell James that his bad directions almost got him shot, and he hurried to his car and drove off.

I don't know if I would necessarily call it a close call, but if he wouldn't have backed up when I closed the door, it might have gotten bad.
 

Chances are............there is NO "James", that's one of the oldest tricks in the book to gain entry into a house! I would have never opened the door to start with, always talk through a closed, locked door. I'm glad he didn't gain entry into your house or hurt your dog....."i'm a big dog lover, and have guard dogs". Next time, don't open the door at all. Relieved your family wasn't harmed. I am retired Sheriff's Dept here in Louisiana, I have seen that one way too many times.

Hugs,
CricetJean
 
I would be careful leaving the house for a bit. My friend had the exact same thing happen to him and they returned when he was at work and robbed him blind. Luckily his neighbor seen it all happen and they caught him a couple blocks away in a truck with all his stuff in it.
 
Close call, glad that you are alright. My advise is to never open the door until you know who is at the door especially in the middle of the night.
 
I've called down from a 2nd story window before. This seems to frustrate the would be assailant/burglar/criminal/junkie etc.

Also, this gives you a much better tactical advantage over them.
 
Glad to hear that everything turned out ok for you. As a woman and a sahm I never answer the door if I don't already know who is on the other side. Also, I always call before going to someone's house. No surprise visits. I grew up on a ranch in rural WY. We didn't get many visitors. But, even as young girl I knew when someone didn't belong there. My sisters and I were swimming in the creek one day and a man came up to the fence and started talking to us. My mom was within earshot. I let this guy have it! Told him to get out of there, he didn't belong there, it was private property and so on. Well, he left. I just remember feeling that this man may be a threat and I needed to protect my little sisters. I was under 10. (My mom heard everything. She was very proud!)
 
Wow, glad it work out okay but like some have said you might want to rethink opening the door until you find out who's at the door. I have a strong security screen door in my front door, that whenever I do open the door after I look out the window the person want be able to gain entry into my home unless I open the security door first. This will make me be aware of what he or them is up to, because if it is one about 90% their are another one lurking close by. Be safe.
 
Reading this post it occurred to me... I don't even have a peep hole in my front door. I'd been toying the idea with of some sort of camera and monitor because that would be a whole lot easier for me to install (better with electronics than carpentry - plus if I make anything slightly off-centered my husband would go nuts!), but I don't have a huge budget. Does anyone have any ideas? Nothing fancy, just a way to make sure that is the UPS guy outside.
 
Reading this post it occurred to me... I don't even have a peep hole in my front door. I'd been toying the idea with of some sort of camera and monitor because that would be a whole lot easier for me to install (better with electronics than carpentry - plus if I make anything slightly off-centered my husband would go nuts!), but I don't have a huge budget. Does anyone have any ideas? Nothing fancy, just a way to make sure that is the UPS guy outside.

Peepholes are simple to install. Measure the thickness of the door and get the right one from home depot and the right size drill bit. Drill the hole and insert the peephole and tighten. your done.
 
Peepholes are simple to install. Measure the thickness of the door and get the right one from home depot and the right size drill bit. Drill the hole and insert the peephole and tighten. your done.

Unless, of course, I get it one centimeter too far to the right... then my lovely husband will require an entirely new door! He can be a little OCD... I always give him a hard time about having to pause a movie in order to move the TV over less than one inch because it was bothering him. Ah well; good thing one of us is!

Of course, I don't particularly like our door...
 
Unless, of course, I get it one centimeter too far to the right... then my lovely husband will require an entirely new door! He can be a little OCD... I always give him a hard time about having to pause a movie in order to move the TV over less than one inch because it was bothering him. Ah well; good thing one of us is!

Of course, I don't particularly like our door...

lol :lol::lol::lol:
 
Reading this post it occurred to me... I don't even have a peep hole in my front door. I'd been toying the idea with of some sort of camera and monitor because that would be a whole lot easier for me to install (better with electronics than carpentry - plus if I make anything slightly off-centered my husband would go nuts!), but I don't have a huge budget. Does anyone have any ideas? Nothing fancy, just a way to make sure that is the UPS guy outside.

If all you want is to see who is at your door and not stand right behind it (you could be shot through your door), I would recommend a cheap camera/monitor system. One that you could flip on when you want to who's at the door. The camera could be wired directly to a B&W monitor and then all you would have to do is look at the monitor. You don't have to get any recording equipment since all you want to do is see who is there. This could be had for under $100 easy.
 
I had an interesting situation in the middle of the night Monday. It was the first really cold night of fall, so my Great Pyrenees was sleeping outside. He usually sleeps inside when it's warmer outside than inside. Anyway, he started going nuts. ( He is a great alarms system.) About 15 seconds later someone starts banging on the door. I immediately think it's one of my neighbors in an emergency. I have an elderly man next door, and I have a teenage girl that stays across the street by herself sometimes because her dad works nights. I got my G27 anyway because Duke wouldn't normally bark at them, and the neighbors would normally call if something happened. As I opened the door, I had my pistol hidden so that I wouldn't scare the crap out of my neighbor or the police if it was them. Well, it wasn't. It was some guy. As I opened the door, he was looking down and proceeded to try to step into my house. I closed the door blocking him, and said " who are you?" keeping my gun out of sight. He looked up at me and said that he was looking for James. I told him that no James lived here or anywhere in this neighborhood, and that I knew all the neighbors. He was very apologetic and backed away. I told him that he needs to tell James that his bad directions almost got him shot, and he hurried to his car and drove off.

I don't know if I would necessarily call it a close call, but if he wouldn't have backed up when I closed the door, it might have gotten bad.

I hope you called LE with a description and any other pertinent info you could provide. It may have been an honest mistake, but then again I would hate to successfully keep a BG out of my own home, not call the police, and then hear on the news that someone else who wasn't as prepared as you was robbed or worse by an individual using the same MO.
 
Reading this post it occurred to me... I don't even have a peep hole in my front door. I'd been toying the idea with of some sort of camera and monitor because that would be a whole lot easier for me to install (better with electronics than carpentry - plus if I make anything slightly off-centered my husband would go nuts!), but I don't have a huge budget. Does anyone have any ideas? Nothing fancy, just a way to make sure that is the UPS guy outside.

Here are surveillance cameras that transmit via wifi to an IP address, less expensive than you might think and include pan/tilt to insure that the person at your door is really alone:

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Good ending to what so easily could of been bad. It really sucks that a guy can never put his guard down. What scares me most is that something would happen when I am in a deep sleep. I worked in the fire service for 30 years and on some of the night calls it would take a minute to get the cobwebs out when in a deep sleep. Plenty of time for the bad guy to get the upper hand.
 
Reading this post it occurred to me... I don't even have a peep hole in my front door. I'd been toying the idea with of some sort of camera and monitor because that would be a whole lot easier for me to install (better with electronics than carpentry - plus if I make anything slightly off-centered my husband would go nuts!), but I don't have a huge budget. Does anyone have any ideas? Nothing fancy, just a way to make sure that is the UPS guy outside.

Uniden makes some fairly cheap surveillance systems, especially if you don't mind a refurb. I've got a system similar to this one that works great. Mine has a larger monitor, but unless you're planning to just sit and watch it, it's not necessary. This one's $120 shipped and has two cameras. You can put them inside pointing out a window or outside.

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