Recent Security Issues at home

In the last 10 days, I've had 2 separate incidents of random dudes knocking at my door and I'm certain they were looking for trouble.

First was 10 days ago. My pregnant wife and 1 yr old daughter were at home and at 10am, a random black dude starts banging (hard) and yelling through the door. The dogs go nuts, the baby starts crying, and she didn't hear what the guy was trying to say.

Wisely, she called me and asked for the code to our GunVault (I should have told her before, just didn't get around to it ) and got my Glock 23, hung up and called the cops. The guy was there for 5-10 minutes and left on his own, no forced entry, but my wife was ready and willing to do what she needed to do. Cops came after the guy was gone, just as I'd figured would happen (even though we live on a high traffic street, less than 1 mile from the police station).

Oddly, the guy had taken our for sale sign in our yard (house is on the market) and put someone else's sign by our front porch. I later found our sign in my back yard. After talking with the realty company on the sign, it turns out they have a listing right around the corner which is vacant.

At this point I was thinking the guy is checking for vacant houses to strip the copper, etc. I was pretty pleased with the way my wife handled things, but we talked about things to do different, etc.


Fast forward to yesterday. I'm watching some early morning cartoons with my daughter, when I hear the slightest knock at the door (7:30am). My dogs didn't even hear it and we were within 10ft of the door. I check outside, random black dude is at the door, putting his ear up to see if he can hear anything.

I put my daughter in a safe place, armed myself, and went back to the door where he again knocked barely loud enough to be hear. I yelled through the door to go away and F off....that got his attention a bit.

He stammered (might have been retarded or high) that he was interested in the house and wanted to know the price and that he lived a few houses up the street. I yelled back "Call the number on the sign if you want to know more, now go the F away." He left on foot and didn't stop to write down the number (gee, I didn't think he would). 7:30am and opening someone's storm door while they talk to you is a good way to end up on the business end of my .40S&W.


Anyway, cops are aware at this point. Come to find out, there is section 8 housing less than a mile from me and they usually only have issues with drugs, but the officer that stopped by seem to know the guy I described. Sounds like the guy is new in the neighborhood and they are trying to figure out where he lives. Funny because we live in a very desirable area and then you have this crap right next door.


This has been a good opportunity to go through "what to do" with my wife when these things occur. Fortunately she's grown up shooting and said she was perfectly comfortable pulling the trigger if the guy came busting in. It was good to have that talk and tell her the right things to say, etc.

Just a reminder for you all to have a plan, communicate it to your spouse, and be on the same page. As a result, I'm going to take a few extra precautions...even borrowed one of my parents security system signs for the yard (can't hurt).

Hopefully this crap stops soon, but it gets your blood pumping.


Any of you have experiences like this?

same reason why I install an intercom in my house to the front door (after our first home robbery) and carry a firearm. had a run in with a shady looking latino couple in my neck of the woods. their nice looking low rider happens to "break down" in front of our house and the dude's gf comes knocking at our door and begs to use the phone. I told her through the intercom that I've already called for help. next thing u know i hear the car screeching away with the girl in it. cops take an hour to get here (go California) and reported that there were a string of scammed home intrusions lately and that I did the right thing... yeah no shit, all the more reason to arm myself and my family too. pisses me off because we worked our asses off to live in a decent area only to have schmucks like these attempt screws us for the fruits of our labor.

couple days ago I notice that my car alarm went off a couple of times in the middle of the night too.

I had three black fellows knock at my door when I was the only one at my house. Everyone else had JUST left. The whole thing was really suspicious. I watched them through the windows as they walked of my porch and looked down each side of my house. They took a close walk past my car as well. I casually called the police and they said they already knew and the group was from some "church". Three black dudes walking around together knocking on your door at a time of day when most are @ work? I never opened the door because I wasn't sure I had heard it in the first place. By the time I got to the door and looked through the peep they were already acting shady.

It can happen anywhere.

happend once when i stayed home. some Dark couple knocked on the door and i decided i wasn't opening since i was tired, i walk upstairs into my bedroom and look out my window to see who it was and i see them trying to stick something in my window when the alarm goes off and i run outside with my fathers 9mm and was gonna shoot these low life crackheads when my neighbor came out(veteran) with his 45 and held them while the cops came, never had a problem since.

whats funny is where i live now you call the cops for suspicious activity and they take an hour to get here (police station is 5 mins away) and yet my jackass backdoor neighbor calls for my dogs barking and they have 2 patrol vehicles her in 5 mins

Mid-December last year, I saw a dark blue Chevrolet 2500 cargo van pull in my driveway one evening and an African-American guy hop out with something behind his back. Somehow or another, I left my 9mm in my car. Eff me for being an idiot. Fortunately, I know where each piece of artillery is hidden and pulled out the .357 magnum. He walked up to the door (glass door) and before he could speak, I asked, "Who are you?" The .357 was in my right hand, the door handle in my left. "FedEx," he responded. "Prove it." He showed me the package and moved his jacket to reveal a FedEx polo. I saw our street address professionally printed on the package and figured it was legit. I pressed the barrel of the gun against the glass, hammer back. He couldn't see it due to the angle of the shades. Turned out to be legit. FedEx needs to mark their vans in the holiday season. They were almost short a delivery man.

Originally Posted by SPDSKTR

Mid-December last year, I saw a dark blue Chevrolet 2500 cargo van pull in my driveway one evening and an African-American guy hop out with something behind his back. Somehow or another, I left my 9mm in my car. Eff me for being an idiot. Fortunately, I know where each piece of artillery is hidden and pulled out the .357 magnum. He walked up to the door (glass door) and before he could speak, I asked, "Who are you?" The .357 was in my right hand, the door handle in my left. "FedEx," he responded. "Prove it." He showed me the package and moved his jacket to reveal a FedEx polo. I saw our street address professionally printed on the package and figured it was legit. I pressed the barrel of the gun against the glass, hammer back. He couldn't see it due to the angle of the shades. Turned out to be legit. FedEx needs to mark their vans in the holiday season. They were almost short a delivery man.

This is a REAL problem. I am lucky enough to have cameras (24 of them to be exact.) and I see this all the time. The part time contract FedEx dudes jumping out a real POS unmarked vehicles. NOT EVEN VANS half the time. Family cars, etc.

FedEx and DHL pay their delivery guys HALF of what UPS does and hires them to drive their own vehicles.

Amazon has some new delivery service I have not ever heard of now and they are in unmarked cars too. Laserline, Laserfast or something weird.

VERY DANGEROUS.

JMO

Originally Posted by GlockMan

This is a REAL problem. I am lucky enough to have cameras (24 of them to be exact.) and I see this all the time. The part time contract FedEx dudes jumping out a real POS unmarked vehicles. NOT EVEN VANS half the time. Family cars, etc.

FedEx and DHL pay their delivery guys HALF of what UPS does and hires them to drive their own vehicles.

Amazon has some new delivery service I have not ever heard of now and they are in unmarked cars too. Laserline, Laserfast or something weird.

VERY DANGEROUS.

JMO

I'd be more than happy to call FedEx and tell them about this. I don't think they get how stupid it truly is. If I saw a stick-on decal on a personal vehicle that says, "FedEx," I'd still draw. You can hardly trust any strangers in modern times, especially during holiday season with the economy the way it is.

Funny sh1t is, I live in a predominantly black neighborhood and twice I had white people testing my security by jumping over my back fence and trying to break in into my hooptie. I swear, I swear!

Nah. Not when I was growing up. Here at school, my house was broken into over thanksgiving break, stole my ps3. None of us were there tho. Pitty.

Originally Posted by BMW_Matt

Nah. Not when I was growing up. Here at school, my house was broken into over thanksgiving break, stole my ps3. None of us were there tho. Pitty.

Damn Matt, I didn't know that was your PS3, put your address up on here & I'll
make sure I get it back to you.

My last house was 1.5 blocks away from Section 8 apartments. And of course, right across the street from my house was a park with a basketball court. As we all know, basketball courts are like hoodrat magnets. More and more hoodrats started showing up. Then I got hired as a cop, but I kept my profession discrete. Finally, my wife's car got broken into just after I signed for my new house in a different suburb that was much nicer. So one day I was coming home from work in full tactical kit with gun, armor, and the works. I pulled into the garage and got out, and did some menial tasks outside before going inside. I made sure the hoodrats saw the giant POLICE logo across my back, and the gun on my leg. I also stopped and stared at them with a pretty dirty look. I think I also had my gun obviously resting on the grip of the gun. From then until I moved out, none of them went near my property. If they had, Stage 2 would have been me walking out of the house one day with one of my ARs.

That being said, it's been my experience from going to umpteen burglaries that none of the houses that were broken-into had alarm systems or large dogs. They're pretty effective deterrents.

Originally Posted by SLVR JDM

In the last 10 days, I've had 2 separate incidents of random dudes knocking at my door and I'm certain they were looking for trouble.

First was 10 days ago. My pregnant wife and 1 yr old daughter were at home and at 10am, a random black dude starts banging (hard) and yelling through the door. The dogs go nuts, the baby starts crying, and she didn't hear what the guy was trying to say.

Wisely, she called me and asked for the code to our GunVault (I should have told her before, just didn't get around to it ) and got my Glock 23, hung up and called the cops. The guy was there for 5-10 minutes and left on his own, no forced entry, but my wife was ready and willing to do what she needed to do. Cops came after the guy was gone, just as I'd figured would happen (even though we live on a high traffic street, less than 1 mile from the police station).

Oddly, the guy had taken our for sale sign in our yard (house is on the market) and put someone else's sign by our front porch. I later found our sign in my back yard. After talking with the realty company on the sign, it turns out they have a listing right around the corner which is vacant.

At this point I was thinking the guy is checking for vacant houses to strip the copper, etc. I was pretty pleased with the way my wife handled things, but we talked about things to do different, etc.


Fast forward to yesterday. I'm watching some early morning cartoons with my daughter, when I hear the slightest knock at the door (7:30am). My dogs didn't even hear it and we were within 10ft of the door. I check outside, random black dude is at the door, putting his ear up to see if he can hear anything.

I put my daughter in a safe place, armed myself, and went back to the door where he again knocked barely loud enough to be hear. I yelled through the door to go away and F off....that got his attention a bit.

He stammered (might have been retarded or high) that he was interested in the house and wanted to know the price and that he lived a few houses up the street. I yelled back "Call the number on the sign if you want to know more, now go the F away." He left on foot and didn't stop to write down the number (gee, I didn't think he would). 7:30am and opening someone's storm door while they talk to you is a good way to end up on the business end of my .40S&W.


Anyway, cops are aware at this point. Come to find out, there is section 8 housing less than a mile from me and they usually only have issues with drugs, but the officer that stopped by seem to know the guy I described. Sounds like the guy is new in the neighborhood and they are trying to figure out where he lives. Funny because we live in a very desirable area and then you have this crap right next door.


This has been a good opportunity to go through "what to do" with my wife when these things occur. Fortunately she's grown up shooting and said she was perfectly comfortable pulling the trigger if the guy came busting in. It was good to have that talk and tell her the right things to say, etc.

Just a reminder for you all to have a plan, communicate it to your spouse, and be on the same page. As a result, I'm going to take a few extra precautions...even borrowed one of my parents security system signs for the yard (can't hurt).

Hopefully this crap stops soon, but it gets your blood pumping.


Any of you have experiences like this?

SLVR JDM, I am glad nothing happened or there was no escalation but i guess i would have handled it differently because of my and my wife's upbringing.

I am dark-skinned Latino from Brooklyn, my wife's dad was a cop in Jamaica for 20yrs before they relocated to Brooklyn.

My wife hates guns but i have a mini arsenol and even though we live in a "desirable" community on the north side of town Crime has escalated steady along with our economies decline.

with that said, me and my cousin were deployed in Iraq in 2008 when he buys his 1st house in a new subdivision in the SW side of Atlanta.

recently divorced, the house stayed empty while he was deployed. 9months later and two 10day vacations and he saved up enough to refurnish the 3000 sq. ft. 2-story house. i came on vacation as he was leaving and when i pull up, i noticed all the boxes of damn near everything he bought on the curb for the trash pick up. i recommended he keep all the boxes for the big stuff in the attic like i do. he didn't have a floor in the attic yet and no longer had time. i did that floor for him the next day but he never took advantage.

he arranged for a friend to house-sit while he was gone this time. 4 months later, when he arrives on vacation in 09' he is home 2 days and drives out of town for the weekend. when he returns he finds the front door wide open with a note from the Local Police dept. asking him to visit the station to complete the report and the house empty!

everything was GONE except his daughters room!

55" LCD
2 laptops
1 pc
living room set
fireproof safe with 10k cash (which was at the bottom of his hamper)
an unregistered glock 31
300 rounds


needless to say, i was livid as he was devastated. it truly can happen to anyone. the police said it has happened in the subdivision 5-10 houses at a time monthly!

I plan a 24 camera/nightvision/motion detection system independant of landline or house power.

I have 1 pitbull and 2 toy dogs but even with the dogs and 6 handguns of nearly every caliber and one custom AR-15 you just never know.

I always answer my door, not always strapped but ready. my wife, i encourage to speak through the door even though she is not a small woman (5'7" @ 170lbs) and an Active soldier (so she is in shape) plus the dogs are always attentive.

black,white,asian,latino,purple it does not matter.

i had a similar incident that Reedo302 had and i responded similarly except i didn't mean mugg anyone.

i casually walked across the street while my Xd.40 was on my thigh and my Glock31 was on my waist (was just returning from the Range) and i smiled and asked nicely if anyone saw anything? with a seriously cold yet polite demeanor i heard them out and walked back to my house. i only stand 6' and was 175lbs back then but felt like i did not want to make any enemies but wanted to let them know i am Not the One you want to F/k with.

they filled my time with questions about the M// anyway.

times are changing and we all must change with them!

Maybe let her know to call police first??

Thanks for the replies, guys.

The wife is now aware to call police first and to warn any person who is a threat of her intent if they do not go away (also that the police have been called). This time I was glad she called me first since she didn't know the combo to the safe, so she was arming herself first, then calling the cops just how I would prioritize things.


It was a good reminder for us to stay on our toes. I typically carry when I'm at home and stay alert to things that are out of the ordinary. This got my wife more concerned about such matters which is good.

As others have said, it really doesn't matter the neighborhood or how safe we think things are, in this day and age, I don't trust anyone.

Please take your wife to the range of you haven't already.

I wasn't comfortable until I knew my wife would be comfortable actually shooting and knowing how to reload and clear jams.

Also, knowing the gun safe combo is not enough. Ask her to open it and get the gun out safely(finger extended, etc)

In a high stress situation make sure forgetting the code or having a AD are not possibilities.

Originally Posted by lrinco01

SLVR JDM, I am glad nothing happened or there was no escalation but i guess i would have handled it differently because of my and my wife's upbringing.

I am dark-skinned Latino from Brooklyn, my wife's dad was a cop in Jamaica for 20yrs before they relocated to Brooklyn.

My wife hates guns but i have a mini arsenol and even though we live in a "desirable" community on the north side of town Crime has escalated steady along with our economies decline.

with that said, me and my cousin were deployed in Iraq in 2008 when he buys his 1st house in a new subdivision in the SW side of Atlanta.

recently divorced, the house stayed empty while he was deployed. 9months later and two 10day vacations and he saved up enough to refurnish the 3000 sq. ft. 2-story house. i came on vacation as he was leaving and when i pull up, i noticed all the boxes of damn near everything he bought on the curb for the trash pick up. i recommended he keep all the boxes for the big stuff in the attic like i do. he didn't have a floor in the attic yet and no longer had time. i did that floor for him the next day but he never took advantage.

he arranged for a friend to house-sit while he was gone this time. 4 months later, when he arrives on vacation in 09' he is home 2 days and drives out of town for the weekend. when he returns he finds the front door wide open with a note from the Local Police dept. asking him to visit the station to complete the report and the house empty!

everything was GONE except his daughters room!

55" LCD
2 laptops
1 pc
living room set
fireproof safe with 10k cash (which was at the bottom of his hamper)
an unregistered glock 31
300 rounds


needless to say, i was livid as he was devastated. it truly can happen to anyone. the police said it has happened in the subdivision 5-10 houses at a time monthly!

I plan a 24 camera/nightvision/motion detection system independant of landline or house power.

I have 1 pitbull and 2 toy dogs but even with the dogs and 6 handguns of nearly every caliber and one custom AR-15 you just never know.

I always answer my door, not always strapped but ready. my wife, i encourage to speak through the door even though she is not a small woman [(5'7" @ 170lbs) and an Active soldier (so she is in shape) plus the dogs are always attentive.

black,white,asian,latino,purple it does not matter.

i had a similar incident that Reedo302 had and i responded similarly except i didn't mean mugg anyone.

i casually walked across the street while my Xd.40 was on my thigh and my Glock31 was on my waist (was just returning from the Range) and i smiled and asked nicely if anyone saw anything? with a seriously cold yet polite demeanor i heard them out and walked back to my house. i only stand 6' and was 175lbs back then but felt like i did not want to make any enemies but wanted to let them know i am Not the One you want to F/k with.

they filled my time with questions about the M// anyway.

times are changing and we all must change with them!

Wow!

Originally Posted by JonJon

Please take your wife to the range of you haven't already.

I wasn't comfortable until I knew my wife would be comfortable actually shooting and knowing how to reload and clear jams.

Also, knowing the gun safe combo is not enough. Ask her to open it and get the gun out safely(finger extended, etc)

In a high stress situation make sure forgetting the code or having a AD are not possibilities.

Yep, I hear you. My wife grew up shooting and we've been to the range dozens of times together. She knows gun safety inside and out and it a pretty dang good shot. I made sure to review with her to aim for center of mass, finger off the trigger until it's go time, etc.

I like the idea of doing some drills to get to the firearm and have some muscle memory involved. Good suggestion.

Originally Posted by SLVR JDM

Yep, I hear you. My wife grew up shooting and we've been to the range dozens of times together. She knows gun safety inside and out and it a pretty dang good shot. I made sure to review with her to aim for center of mass, finger off the trigger until it's go time, etc.

I like the idea of doing some drills to get to the firearm and have some muscle memory involved. Good suggestion.

I also reviewed the laws with her, but honestly....

Her, home alone with our 3 year old and 5 months pregnant....someone breaks into the house? She's got a golden "shoot ticket" in court.

Originally Posted by JonJon

I also reviewed the laws with her, but honestly....

Her, home alone with our 3 year old and 5 months pregnant....someone breaks into the house? She's got a golden "shoot ticket" in court.