Some one just tried to walk into my home. NO SOLICITOR Sign being ignored

[cyprant]

At 7pm central time (dark out) this evening my family was startled off the sofa while watching a Barbie movie with my 4 year old daughter. Some one opened my storm door and grabbed my "main" door handle. This makes a distinct sound because we sit about 6 feet from the front door on my living room and the door handle is a little "loose". I jumped up from my seat and my wife took my daughter in to the nearest room while I drew my gun from my hip.

I opened the door to find a 7 year old girl... I about ****. I felt dumb and like I was over reacting. I think I actually said some thing like "****" when I realized it was a kid with her mom and another kid...

I called to my wife to "deal with them" as I had a gun in my hand and no way to secure it at the immediate moment. They were raising money for some charity...

This is maybe the 3rd time we have had people ignore this sign in the last year or so. It says "NO SOLICITORS". Its fairly large, about 12" x 4" and is right in the middle of my door. In order to knock on my door, you would basicly need knock on the sign..

Edit: this thread has derailed a bit so to reiterate: it was after dark, some one opened my storm door then proceed to attempt to open my main exterior door. I ran to the door with weapon in hand (about 3 steps away) I opened the door pulling the door handle out of the persons hand who was trying to Gain entry into my home after dark. Just to find a little girl and her mom collecting for charity...no one at the front door ever knew I had a weapon.

I am pissed that some one tried to walk into my home. Kid or not (I have little ones myself, that we we teach manners and boundaries and respect) you do not ever open a persons door to their home. The fact that a couple people have twisted this thread to think I hate children collecting for charity is completely asinine. I can't believe that any american would condone strangers attempting to gain entry into my home, let alone attack me for defending my home when there is an intruder. Again, keep in mind while I was rushing to the door, I didn't know who was out there, just that some one wanted in... I never pointed my gun at any one. I posted this to try and learn something (which I did) and to show my mistakes and the things that I did right so others could learn from it...

I do not feel bad about how any thing went down at all. I do wish my front door was locked, I do wish I had a peep hole, I am proud that I was able to respond to the perceived threat quickly and my family did what I wanted them to do at that time too.

 

[BravoMike]

If you felt threatened enough to draw your gun, then why did you open the door? Seems like an easy way to let an attacker in.

 

[churchmouse]

Shoot the next bunch in the face.....mount them on poles at the head of the drive. You will be passed by I guarantee.


In all seriousness, we have the same signs posted in plan view in multiple languages (no Trespass/soliciting) for all to see and we still get bothered. When I challenge them on this they always say to the man.....I am not trespassing. I then say well yes you are and also soliciting. They tell me soliciting is legal and i should get past that.

They are then ejected from the property.

Look first....then open. Gun or not you can be rapidly overpowered. I/we always go out another door and approach from the side.

 

[williamnewman1]

no r-e-s-p-e-c-t ....... but have had similiar situation were i grabbed my shotgun off my wall for a 4-5yr old girl from next door wanting to know if my kids could come out to play (by next door i mean a good 200-250yds)

 

[jedi]

Glad to see you and your family are safe.
However WHY DID YOU OPEN THE DOOR!!!

I don't care if it's the Pope from Rome himself at the door. I am not going to open it unless I look out the windows on the 2nd floor, check the back door/windows as well. For all you know that 'mom and girl' were just a setup to distract you while someone came in from the back or they could have just been more pawns in someone's sick and twisted game just to get you to open the door especially at 7PM when it's dark up here.


You are closer than I am to the IL border and enough of the trouble that lives over there has been spilling to the NWI side.

 

[cyprant]

I keep asking my self why I opened the door too... I definitely learned a few things tonight...

I think I rushed the door because it wasn't locked (first mistake) and I wanted to get between whom ever was at my door and my family. This is probably why also felt so Dumb when there was a little girl on my porch.

 

[chezuki]

At 7pm central time (dark out) this evening my family was startled off the sofa while watching a Barbie movie with my 4 year old daughter. Some one opened my storm door and grabbed my "main" door handle.

Why did they try to open your door rather than knock? To me, that's the most suspicious part of the whole incident. Big red flag. They may have just been checking to see if the door was locked under the guise of selling something.

What can we do to get people to start listening to the sign?

Mount a speaker to it and have it play music... Or an audible "No Soliciting" warning might be more helpful to your cause.

 

[cyprant]

Why did they try to open your door rather than knock? To me, that's the most suspicious part of the whole incident. Big red flag. They may have just been checking to see if the door was locked under the guise of selling something

This is what got us off the sofa so fast. If some one simply knocked, I would have answered the door as usual...

 

[sepe]

Shoot the next bunch in the face.....mount them on poles at the head of the drive. You will be passed by I guarantee.


In all seriousness, we have the same signs posted in plan view in multiple languages (no Trespass/soliciting) for all to see and we still get bothered. When I challenge them on this they always say to the man.....I am not trespassing. I then say well yes you are and also soliciting. They tell me soliciting is legal and i should get past that.

They are then ejected from the property.

Look first....then open. Gun or not you can be rapidly overpowered. I/we always go out another door and approach from the side.

You had me up until the "In all seriousness". I scared the crap out of some 18-20 year old kid when he walked up the drive while I was working in the garage. I heard the dog bark so I grabbed a 3lb sledge hammer off the bench and started towards the drive. Turned out he was going around for some church scholarship program that was guys vs. girls and he wasn't really trying his sales pitch as he said the girls were way behind. Seemed like a pretty decent kid and was the first I've had that cared about appearance and professionalism (most seem to use slang and are pretty rude). He surprised me by apologizing for bothering me and then we stood around talking about sports for about 15 minutes. Also told him which houses to avoid as some neighbors are a little bit racist and a couple are not all there mentally. I saw him again at Walmart and he came up to me talking about the White Sox.

 

[jedi]

You had me up until the "In all seriousness". I scared the crap out of some 18-20 year old kid when he walked up the drive while I was working in the garage. I heard the dog bark so I grabbed a 3lb sledge hammer off the bench and started towards the drive. Turned out he was going around for some church scholarship program that was guys vs. girls and he wasn't really trying his sales pitch as he said the girls were way behind. Seemed like a pretty decent kid and was the first I've had that cared about appearance and professionalism (most seem to use slang and are pretty rude). He surprised me by apologizing for bothering me and then we stood around talking about sports for about 15 minutes. Also told him which houses to avoid as some neighbors are a little bit racist and a couple are not all there mentally. I saw him again at Walmart and he came up to me talking about the White Sox.

THREAD HIGH-JACK
Send that kid to an Appleseed.

 

[lonehoosier]

If you felt threatened enough to draw your gun, then why did you open the door? Seems like an easy way to let an attacker in.

This. If you can hear the knock, they can hear you talk through the door. Never open your door if you don't know what's behind it.

 

[88GT]

Why did they try to open your door rather than knock? To me, that's the most suspicious part of the whole incident. Big red flag. They may have just been checking to see if the door was locked under the guise of selling something.

Yeah, something ain't right with that.

You're screwed on the "No Solicitors" thing, unless you simultaneously post "No Trespassing" and can convince a prosecutor to press charges for every offense. I guess I'm wondering why you would expect people to honor it. In a perfect world, I understand. We're far from that though.

 

[Que]

They probably read the sign and said, "Well, that is a request, but not the law, so... " Anyway, could you not look out of a peep hole or window to see who it was?

 

[Ruffnek]

Why did they try to open your door rather than knock? To me, that's the most suspicious part of the whole incident. Big red flag. They may have just been checking to see if the door was locked under the guise of selling something.

My thoughts exactly.They would've gotten a lengthy lecture from me on trespassing and breaking and entering before they left.Down here,the door opens up and,if you ain't family,you'll likely have your brain tickled by a barrel.

 

[Expat]

I doubt most people even know what soliciting means and people collecting for charity probably figure that applies to sales people, not them.

 

[cbhausen]

Que beat me to it. Peep hole.

 

[cyprant]

I think we will be installing a peep hole or something similar (camera).

 

[Kirk Freeman]

I have a very nice 190 degree peephole on my Polaris steel front door.

No reason you can't yell through the door. I know people want to open it as they is how they were raised.

1. Get a better front door with a peephole.

2. Talk through doors.

It says "NO SOLICITORS".

So, barristers are still permissible?

 

[The Bubba Effect]

I had a very brief decisive encounter with a pizza delivery guy one night about 2:00am. My screen door was unlocked, my front door was unlocked and he was totally at the wrong house (don't know that I had ever forgot to lock it before or since). I had heard something strange at the door and as I approached it I noticed it unlocked, as I reached for it, he started opening the door. He ended up laying on my porch and I ended up apologizing for knocking him down (I did not point the gun at him and I did keep my finger off the trigger, so that's something). He was dressed like pizza guy, had uniform, pizza, car with sign on it, flashlight, etc. I believe him that he couldn't find the address and saw my lights on and tried knocking. I had my headphones on, so didn't hear him until he really started banging on the door. For the life of me I don't know why he tried opening the door. I know I would not try opening a stranger's door, especially at 2:00 am, especially in my neighborhood.

Now I do what I suggest you do, I lock my storm door. If someone is knocking on it, I can open my interior door if I l want to and talk to them through the storm, or not open my interior door. It's not hard to yank the locked storm door open, but it's loud and takes intent.

 

[Dead Duck]

But Biden said to shoot through the door.

You did it wrong.