Bump in the night, likely tweaker on the porch hands in pocket...lessons learned

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  • Goodcat

    From a place you cannot see…
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    We live in a quiet neighborhood in Fishers, so things rarely happen. Tonight, at 10:30pm, I heard banging on my front door. As I stood up from my couch, I observed a shirtless white male with hands in pockets tweaking out on the other side of largely glass door ten feet in front of me, peering through my front window and banging on the door staring at me and then waving. I went straight to our bedroom (right by front door), alerted my wife and called 911 after retrieving an illuminated/suppressed firearm.

    I secured our children’s room, pulled all blinds completely shut, turned on all exterior lights and waited for the police.

    Turns out, it was a very very drunk friend of a neighbor who was confused what house he was returning to. Total response time until arriving at my house was 15 minutes. Total response time from banging on door until firearm in hand, 15 seconds.

    What I did well:
    -Stayed inside, secure and safe with family
    -Immediate firearm access
    -After threat was gone and awaiting police, I placed my firearm on a table to the side of the door and covered it with a jacket, instead of keeping it in hand or holstered (too many 911 callers get shot), or waiting until I saw police. Do not have it in your hand when police arrive; you may not see them coming. Stay inside until police arrive, don’t be mistaken for the bad guy. Don’t create any possible unfortunate accident.

    What we learned:
    -My wife should have grabbed her firearm
    -My wife should have placed the 911 call,
    not me. I was not observant of the situation during my call.
    -Our front door has too much view of our interior in general. Curtains on order. I did not like that he could see me assessing the situation.
    -I should have alerted 911 I was armed and would disarm once I saw a police vehicle and before making contact. Too much risk a cop could have approached my front door without me seeing and noticed a gun in hand.

    Glad all is well. Not 100% sure if they verified he was truthful, or just let him go and gave me the bogus story he told, but I’d imagine they would have verified. Good lessons learned we’ll take into account and discuss now!! Be safe all.
     

    chenowethpm

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    Sounds like a pretty intense situation, seems like you kept your cool and safely dealt with it though. Glad everything turned out ok. Quite alarming.

    You could have fired 40 warning shots to outdo the guy who fired 39.
     

    Bigtanker

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    Good job. Noticing the things you can improve on is good.


    I'll toss up a "what if". What if the knock on the door had been a bust through door? Would 15 seconds to retrieve the firearm been quick enough?
     

    Skullglide

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    A gun on your person in the house. This seems overkill and extreme to a lot of people. You just experienced a situation that thoroughly backs it up. Good job not going outside.
     

    KellyinAvon

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    Good to hear things worked out. Neighborhoods are quiet, until the tweaker shows up on your porch.
     

    Trapper Jim

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    I'm glad this turned out ok. Where you live is no reason to be more readily armed. Many people think they have spent enough money to be in a less crime infected area and have good police protection and that all residents are perfect people. Fact is, we do not know what goes on in other peoples lives. We like to think the best of them but your neighbor could have been a dope dealing punk or having an extreme emotional love spat or etc. Do you have strong relationships with everyone on your block or like many, do you just refer them as the people that drive the blue car? At pounding, my strong hand is ready for presentation and I am quickly checking my rear for accomplice perps coming in the back door or windows while keeping an eye on tweaker. Did your bright security lights go off in the yard lighting up the place like a ballpark at a nightgame? Any alarms tripped? These are all clues to help decide if you should call 911. (not always your best bet). Not knowing what kind of firearm or caliber, it is hard to say that you may in fact put your family at more risk than needed. The CR 9 (Conditioned Response) could have been a nightmare based on your weapon choice and skill set. Do or can anyone else join you in the fight? There are many things we don't know about this event but perhaps it is a good place to start learning.
     

    KellyinAvon

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    Sounds like a pretty intense situation, seems like you kept your cool and safely dealt with it though. Glad everything turned out ok. Quite alarming.

    You could have fired 40 warning shots to outdo the guy who fired 39.
    He could have a gofundme too!! Buy the kids some wrenches for next time.
     

    fullmetaljesus

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    To add to the what if above. Did I read that right? You would have to walk past the front door to get to your bedroom on the right?

    Had he kicked in the door and controlled that immediate area. Would you have been able to go to your bedroom to get your firearm? Or had your wife grabbed it, and defended her position, would you have been in the backdrop of her fire?
     

    Goodcat

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    To add to the what if above. Did I read that right? You would have to walk past the front door to get to your bedroom on the right?

    Had he kicked in the door and controlled that immediate area. Would you have been able to go to your bedroom to get your firearm? Or had your wife grabbed it, and defended her position, would you have been in the backdrop of her fire?

    Correct, my house has the worst tactical layout. I could have retrieved others from other areas of the house, but from the exact place I was, it was the fastest option. I’ll definitely be reconsidering this in our planning now.
     

    churchmouse

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    Living where we do has given us a more SA view of the outside world. This was more common around here than people realize. It has calmed down a lot in the last 2 years since our local LEO have put the hammer to a lot of the crap and a serious change in the residents also have had a calming effect.

    OP you did pretty well actually. Our responses are a bit more seasoned from the issues we have been exposed too over the years so we have a solid plan in place. The spouse immediately arms herself and retreats to the bedroom with the phone doing the 911 thing. I look at the cameras and decide on a course of actin. And yes this includes confronting if need be. Depends on the issue at hand.

    Been really quite around here as I said but we are SA if things do not seem right.

    Have a plan. Talk about the plan at times to keep it fresh. Fire....a plan. Tornado.....a plan. Tweaker...a plan. No one wants to think of a home invasion but they do happen.
     

    Tanfodude

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    A gun on your person in the house. This seems overkill and extreme to a lot of people. You just experienced a situation that thoroughly backs it up. Good job not going outside.

    Anything to eliminate time in acquiring a firearm for defense is not overkill IMO.
     

    Goodcat

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    Anything to eliminate time in acquiring a firearm for defense is not overkill IMO.
    Agreed. I usually carry throughout the day inside until we are settling in. A new tactical walls shelf install is in order! We learned a lot from last night and are working our game plan, frosting front windows, etc.
     

    LP1

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    Overall, very well done, congrats on lessons learned, and thank you for sharing your experience.

    Curious regarding the 15 minute police response. How did you describe the situation, and how much of a sense of urgency did you articulate to the dispatcher? If you made it sound urgent, 15 minutes seems like a long time for Fishers, unless you're in a remote section of town.

    And I'm not sure about the lesson learned regarding telling them that you're armed. Depending on the officer's mindset, experience, and training, it seems like it could go well or end very badly. IMO, it would be better to give a clear description of your clothing vs. the intruder. But I would be interested to hear what LEOs would say about that (aside from the standard "don't take the law into your own hands").
     

    Leadeye

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    Here in the GSF if somebody is banging on the door after dark it's never good. Fortunately that's never happened.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    Agreed. I usually carry throughout the day inside until we are settling in. A new tactical walls shelf install is in order! We learned a lot from last night and are working our game plan, frosting front windows, etc.


    As others have mentioned about crashing through. I'd seriously look at a new steel entry door with a smaller window, or ballistic film to really slow them down.

    Something along these lines that still lets in light and looks good, but the glass cant be used to enter or reach through and open the door.

    iu
     

    rebase

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    I'd suggest any improvements to cause an intruder as much delay and frustration as possible. Window film to prevent kicking thru a glass pane sounds like the easiest improvement for you. 3" screws to require more than one kick to solid door frames. Even furniture in the way can give you precious seconds.

    Glad you're ok brother.
     

    Redlinetoys

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    Speaking of glass doors... we purchased and installed this Larson storm door over our (partially) glass front entrance door to enhance overall security.

    The Larson full view storm door has three latch points instead of one... and the laminated glass is pretty resistant to a general intruder.

    Take a look at the video, including a “bad guy” with a baseball bat. I would recommend it to anyone. Well worth the investment.

    https://youtu.be/MjVNYuUWP6U
     

    alabasterjar

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    Correct, my house has the worst tactical layout. I could have retrieved others from other areas of the house, but from the exact place I was, it was the fastest option. I’ll definitely be reconsidering this in our planning now.

    Props for using this as an honest audit of your plan...

    Fun little story...I have a friend who has firearms "planted" around the house (no kids/family, not much of an entertainer); claims he does that so he is "never more than x feet away from a firearm". At my work,we were doing an electrical upgrade, adding variable frequency drives to some big pumps. During start up, something in one of the old electrical panels gave up the ghost, emanating the unmistakeable smell of something letting out the magic blue smoke. I ran past 3 fire extinguishers to get to the one just outside my office door; the one I see 25 times a day. aside from the fact that the extinguisher I grabbed wasn't rated for electrical fires (like the one in the MCC room that I ran past), I reverted back to what I KNEW; i.e. where THE fire extinguisher was, outside my office.

    This is the calculus you have to play out in your situation. When it hits the fan, will your brain default to the closest firearm hidden (that you probably haven't handled for 3 mos, maybe more)? Or will it default to the most familiar firearm? Unfortunately, this probably won't be apparent until a fan moment. You had one, take the time to evaluate your response and plan accordingly.

    Thank you for candidly sharing your experience. It's made me take another look at how I handle things at home after the lights are out!
     
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