I truly hope this is the right spot but I found my self last night in as bit of a second guessing myself after the fact.
It’s 1:30 am and both my wife and I are up late from Saturday into Sunday. Our German Shepard is barking that “intruder” bark. In my office upstairs, I get up out of my chair, grab my Glock 19 in its holster and start heading downstairs.
Turning the corner at the bottom of the stairs, with my gun out of its holster and finger on the frame, I see my dog barking up a storm, less than a foot from the intruder. it was 5’10 white older man and seems a bit confused and a bit homeless. But at this point my gun is already pointing straight at him. When he sees my 6’2 frame holding a gun at him he starts to apologize over and over, as I am directing him with my firearm to the back sliding door from which he came in from.
Here is the deal.
As I came around the corner from the stairs, it all happen super quick. What Happen? The processing of detail. I saw a short stature, poorly aged, confused man, with a Wiegles cup in his left hand and a shirt in his right. His pants dropped way to much for his age and his faded jeans and tank top where dirty.
My dog new this straight away, and so did I, this intruder in my home may be in the wrong place. but he was not an immediate threat and I saw no reason to to actually have my finger ON the trigger, but I did not see a reason to put my gun away either until this situation was over.
After confirming he was gone from the area and my home and going away from other homes I came back in and did a mental debrief of most of the night.
I am putting this out here to ask. “What would you have done?”
Thanks
Jason
Needless to say I felt like a total failure as a man as this should of not be able to happen. Needless to say, Those, and other things have been fixed, and more enhancements are incoming.
I think you did the right thing, you assessed if he was an immediate threat, escorted him from your premises without firing a shot.
How did he get inside?
I agree, you handled it perfectly after he got in. It’s the part of him getting in that leaves questions. How? My wife and I both check all the doors on an almost constant basis. We check each other’s locking, just to be sure. Same with the windows. It’s not often we have ground floor windows open, but when we do, we go around after each other to see that they’re all closed tight to lock. Then the alarm is set. If a window is cracked the alarm will fault.
Thats the failure part. The Sliding door bar was off. Never even thought about it. Im better then that, and I will kick myself for a few weeks as a reminder and a punishment.
No need for punishment or replaying it over and over. You handled it with great discipline, it’s over. Lessons learned.
Tomorrow is a new and safer day at “your” house!
Guess it’s a good thing he didn’t make any sudden moves!.
If I had that prior warning ( the dog ) and the hairs standing up, I keep a .45 in the nightstand with attached light, the wife is on the phone with 911 and a backup Mossberg 500! Keep calm, be polite, be professional have a plan…
Seems your plan worked. These days a lot of folks are trigger happy. Good job everyone is safe!
You did good. You never know if this guy was seeking to rob or something else. If he was homeless, I would rather be on the super cautious side than not. Don’t know if he was high or off in the head. Neither are good in your situation.
I have similar concerns. We live in the back half of this huge old farm house and I too am working to fix weak spots. The house has an ancient door on the front that needs replacing. Working on the wife to get a more solid door. Then I will look for other things to upgrade.
Make him “kiss the concrete”, and call the police - by letting him go, you FOOL - you turned him loose to prey or intrude on someone else. What was the dog doing, besides barking? After arming myself, I would’ve let him in ASAP to face down the intruder, or at least use him for a diversion or a shield - you can always replace a dog - let him earn his keep, for once. Apparently his homeless,“confused” appearance didn’t interfere with his efforts to invade your home - mental case or not, he should be off the street and out of the public’s hair.
I understand your position but the dog is trained to attack (Draw Blood) when there is a threat but made to do his “Intruder” bark when there is an intruder. I guess the best way to explain that, is like he is trained in the color codes. A difference of Code Orange and Code Red.
NO! You shouldn’t KICK YOURSELF for a few weeks!
YOU ARE A GUNNER SIR! Did your wife and yourself survive the encounter? YES!
Did you shoot an unarmed Homeless, confused, whatever man? or Panic? NO!
Did you forget to check that gateway? YES, but Poop Happens.
Will you be more diligent in the future? You betcha! The best way to survive a Gunfight/Shoot is to not have one. CONGRATS! YOU PASSED!
Forgive yourself today! We all give you a Thumbs up for surviving.
I know this doesn’t address the scenario as it happened, but, we’re home at 1:30 AM, the doors and windows are all locked, the doors are all extra barricaded (door clubs, night locks, etc), and the alarm is on.
It’s going to take a lot more than confusion to get in and make an awful lot of noise in the process
How the phuck can you call a fellow member A FOOL?
He did it right. Nobody died (including his wife and himself, His dog survived!
Are you having a brain Bleed?
Should I call you a Whambulance?
Did you just hit your head ?
Where is your compassion man?
What the HELL are the cops going to do these days?
let him go anyway, Harass this Brother for protecting his own (you bet!)
Think before you post Friend.
“or at least use him for a diversion or a shield - you can always replace a dog - let him earn his keep, for once” Not a dog owner I guess… WOW, You can always replace a dog. SAD man just sad
Sounds like what’s missing IMO is an alarm. All windows and doors, and arm it religiously/have an automatic reminder or automatic arming time
Honestly THE scariest idea to me is that someone gets into my house and I don’t know until after they are in.
I’d rather be armed with a baseball bat and know they are there as the alarm goes off, than have my AR15 type suppressed rifle at my side and not yet know there is someone in my house
Sure doesn’t sound like you!
Definitely understand the frustration, though.
We had a topic recently about being cool online!
At this point I think a raggedy old drunk is the least of our worries as the alphabet industry is clearly on a rampage, in search of good old boys like ourselves!
So maybe give the guy some credit for not putting two in the chest at the mere sight of an intruder. In some ways, as we are taught here, de-escalation and avoidance were key.
At least @GyverX didn’t become one of the statistics in our Concealed Carry Magazine! Or worse a topic of some blue state DA!
I do hope you never have to experience what he did, because I sure don’t want to read about you in a headline from the local newspaper!
You do have a valid point, which I will include in my observations. The whole homeless look could have been a ruse. I get the feeling that the dog would have been on to that quicker than a human. I would not hold the dog back! But I would wait until my life is threatened, then of course I would drop that plucker right there! Then call for clean up and a lawyer!
You got it right. You did exactly what I hope to do.
Protect my family and my home.
Never Ever hurt an undeserving human or animal.
Learn from and get better from the experience.
You are no fool my friend, you are simply that much better today.
Had a similar event at my condo, door comes open and in walks an elderly lady. I jump up, reach for my gun then realize she was looking around like something wasn’t right. I walked over to her and asked her which unit she was looking for, she told me and I walk her to her condo.
I’m not certain but I’ll bet you I could walk less than 3 blocks from my door and actually find some crime scene tape. That said, I haven’t heard of anyone getting shot around here this weekend but then again the SLPD have turned the area into a police station. We have walking patrols, we have Cruisers with flashing lights parked, We have mobile camera set ups, we have drones. It’s actually more frightening to walk out there now than it was then…
