@Dawn & @Zee -I am placing this post here. If you feel that it is more appropriate in another catagory, feel free to move it. Thanks.
I keep having these reoccuring nightmares of getting involved in a gunfight with bad guys in my home which usually does not end well for anyone involved. One night last week, I thought that it was becoming reality.
It was about midnight, and there was a loud knock at my front door, accompanied by someone shining a spotlight in my bedroom window. The knocking continued as I jumped out of bed, pulled on my jeans, and pushed my (holstered) firearm inside my waistband. I left the houselights off. My porchlight was on. I went to the door, yelled âwho is it?â, and got âPoliceâ in reply. I opened the door, and saw a deputy sheriff standing in my yard, a bit to my right. The unusual thing is that he was not on my porch. There was another officer to the right by the front of my house. Before I could greet them, the first officer asked, âDid you call 911?â, to which I snswered âNo, sir.â He then asked, âIs this *** South Sunset?â I replied No, sir. This is North Sunset, South Sunset is across the highway" (the main street in town). The officer said, Thanks", and his partner made a comment about their GPS misleading. No-one drew a gun during this incident, and they were not running code. A couple of questions:
Did my actions i(no lights, time delay, etc.) increase the officersâsuspicions that they might be dealing with a âbad guyâ hence the unusual positions? Do small town/poor county police departments sometime hire âout-of-townersâ that do not know the town and misinterpert their GPS? Thanks for your input.
I canât answer for LEOs, but I will comment about this specific item. I use my GPS/navigation app extensively, even to/from familiar places, including turn-by-turn directions. I took some defensive driving training recently and learned that having verbal directions from oneâs GPS/navigation app is a safer scenario than driving without instructions - even when one is traveling to a known and familiar location. Some street addresses still arenât clear in the navigation systemsâ maps. Theyâre much better than they were 12 years ago when I bought our first Garmins, but still not perfect,
It doesnât sound good⊠for me as well.
My address is screwed up on most of GPS systems and people are driving 2 miles away from my location
Iâm wondering how is it possible that Police / Sheriff ended up at wrong place after somebody called 911 from home phone number or cell phone
Staying calm and following instruction goes a long way. To some extent, as a law abiding citizen, we have no need to fear a police officer. You came to the door, opened it, and spoke with them. Yes, GPS is nice, but not perfect.
I would have spoken with them through the door and called the police department from my phone to see if they were legit. I know there are mix ups from police to pizza delivery but âlost while on a 911 callâ seems sketchy to me.
The original door on my home had stained glass windows in front. One of them was broken so instead of replacing the glass, I had my husband make a couple wooden pieces that fit there. We matched them up so they look like they are part of the original door. they have hinges so the open and shut. and they close and lock on the insideâŠill have to post a photo.
I donât have to open the door if I donât know who it is or I just want to talk to someone. An added benefit, UPS, Fed EX, Amazon, USPS, etc appreciate me just peeking through when the dogs sound like they are going to go through the door.
@Alexander8,
In referance to your two polints, I guess I have this problem of being too trusting. As @Dawn noted, I need to install a spyglass in my front door. As to your second point, I guess I could have strapped my gun on without my jeans, but then it would not be concealed, and I would have ultimately been arrested for murder-the officers would have died laughing.
I think this is a strategy worth using. I might be calling 911 while getting my stuff together, seeing as theyâre shining a light INSIDE MY HOUSE. I want to confirm WHO Iâm dealing with before I open the door.
I have a friend who was misidentified by a bounty-hunter on skip retrieval (they were seeking a bail jumper). He has a pretty common name and the bounty hunters, THREE of them were in his yard and on his porch, visibly armed, and pounding the door telling him to come out for HOURS. Had he opened the door theyâd have yanked him out and hauled him off to another state before it got sorted out. YES he called cops but theyâre in a no-manâs-land between cities and none of the city or county agencies would respond. Eventually he got state LEOs out there and it got resolved, but it was literally hours.
Not opening the door. Definitely calling police. Might be talking with them through the door if the phone call to LEOs is taking time⊠might.
Their placement could be considered a defensive/offensive alignment. Standing directly in front of the door would a demonstration of âInline guard: a guard that aligns itself in direct opposition to the foeâ
The way they chose to stand would be an example of âCounterguard: a guard that sets itself at an angle to the foe so that it can both directly attack the foe while still remaining off the foes most direct line of attack.â
Or in simpler terms: standing in front of the door could subject the Officer(s) to a gunshot through the door with no warning. Standing as they did means the person inside the door might not see either of them directly through a spy hole and, upon opening said door might be able to engage one of them but would expose themselves to immediate return fire from the other who was off line and may not have been seen.
Well, it is evident that my procedure needs some re-thinking. At the very least, I need to install a âspyglassâ in my door, so I could check their identity without opening my door. It can take a long time for 911 to answer (small, rural town), and there have been no âno-knockâ intrusions that I know of. I donât thinks crooks would knock. I also might get one of those âvideo doorbellsâ that I see advertised. Anyway thank you all for the advice and suggestions! You all are the reason why the USCCA Conmunity is my main hangout when I am online.
@Zee; I read the article you posted and immediatly started a search for âvideo doorbellsâ. Apparently, they run between $1-200.00, and will do everything for you except maybe cook dinner. Guess I need to save up, they are a bit above my price range , as well as being far beyond my computer knowledge. When I was younger, computers were located in laboratories and filled a fair sized room. They had the computing capacity of about 1/100th of an average phone. This is gonna take some doing. In the meantime, I will take the low-tech route and install a peephole. AND, I will always ensure that I am armed when I answer the door.
