We hear it all the time, but it's hard to know what decisions you will make under the pressure of (potentially) dangerous situations.

I had to work late last night to get some work done that is due today, so I didn't get home until 2:00 am. As I pulled onto my street, I saw a man in my next-door neighbor's yard. (The house is currently vacant with a sale/lease sign in the yard.) When I see him I immediately turn on my brights to get a better look. He was walking out of the yard and onto the sidewalk, then proceeded in front of my house and got into a vehicle parked in front of the neighbor's house on the other side of mine, and drove off. I kept a bit of a distance, but kept my lights on him the entire time. He was wearing blue jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt with the hood on. He never turned around and looked at me, just walked to the vehicle. His pace was steady, but not hurried. He never changed his pace.

As he was getting in the car, I was trying to figure out what to do. I quickly looked at the neighbor's house but it did not appear to have anything out of place or show signs of entry. I considered following him and getting a license plate number. I considered pulling up to him and asking him what the hell he was doing. I looked around to see if there were any other people/vehicles, but didn't see any. I considered calling police, but didn't know whether they would care or exactly what I would tell them. So, I ended up parked in the street for a few moments and watched him drive away. I backed up and pointed my lights at the neighbor's house but again didn't see anything unusual. I parked in my driveway, turned off the lights and got out of my truck, and stood in the driveway for a few minutes to see if I saw any other activity. Nothing.

I was mostly concerned about my wife and son inside the house. I went inside and they were sound asleep. When my wife woke up I told her about the situation and of course she got scared. As I laid there in bed, I replayed the scene over and over in my head trying to assess if I had done the right thing and what I should have done. At this point, I still don't know.

So, Outdoors board, what do you think? What would you have done?

Pretty much the same thing, but I would have called the non-emergency number and reported the incident.

Sounds like you did about what I would do. I think it wouldn't have hurt to call the police and give a vehicle description. If it was a burglar/vermin, and there have been a series of break-ins, that might be a good lead for them.

What I would or wouldn't do would depend on if I was carrying or not. I cannot carry in my vehicle bc I work on Federal property. Probably would have done the same but I might have asked him to stay put until the police arrive just to see what his reaction would have been.

I probably would have gotten the license plate number just in case you found out later that the house had been broken into. The guy may have known the former residents and did not know they had left.

There was not any apparent reason to confront him. Could have been the last thing you ever did.

[This message has been edited by ghollow (edited 11/12/2010 10:49a).]

Priority #1 in this case is that you and your loved ones are unharmed.

For example, how would your wife feel if you stopped a burglary, but in the process lost your life. When the alternative would have been to not stop a burglary, but have kept your life?

That's why I feel a defensive posture is the best move in your scenario. Approaching this man puts priority #1 in jeopardy.

I had a similar situation. I was home alone (husband was out of town for work) and the dog woke up anxiously wanting to go outside. It was about 1:30 in the morning. I let him out and he beelined to the gate...not normal behavior. I turned the backyard lights off and saw brake lights through the boards of our privacy fence. I see a truck moving very slowly in the alley behind our house. I immediately grabbed the phone and called the non-emergency number (I have it memorized) and a police officer patrolled the area minutes later. He called me back and said he didn't seen anything suspicious.

I'd just rather be safe than sorry.

I'd vote for:

call 911, give them plate #, vehicle description, description of dude in sweatshirt.



Reasoning: Time of night, and you didn't recogize either the car or the guy.

[This message has been edited by Goose (edited 11/12/2010 10:54a).]

I'd bet he's one of probably thousands of criminals that break into foreclosed or for-sale houses and steal fixtures, recyclable metals, etc...

I'll admit, I fell victim to the self-preservation thought process of not wanting to provoke the potential criminal into retribution. I never thought it would happen to me.

I came very close to pulling up close enough to get a license plate number, just for purposes of reporting it to police. I didn't because I was right in front of my house and the person would easily know where I lived (my truck would be parked in the driveway). If this guy was armed and overly concerned about me getting close enough to potentially identify him, he would know where to find me if retribution was on his mind. A year ago it wouldn't have even crossed my mind, but having a 7 month old child inside will change your perspective. My #1 concern at the time was thier safety. I also decided against risking getting that close because it did not appear to me that he had broken into any house. If I had seen that the house was broken into (door or windows open or broken) and I knew he had actually committed a crime I would have absolutely gotten close enough to get a license plate number and would have probably followed him.

Again, you never know how you're going to react until you're actually in a situation.

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It doesn't even have to be foreclosed or vacant homes for sale. My wife's company has had people come and steal the copper out of the A/C units in their model homes where people are at constantly.

A house behind us is for sale and has been vacant for 12 months. Someone stole the new appliances out of it about a month ago.

Last week, I saw a pickup idling in the driveway and dude just sitting there with the gate open.

I called the cops. They came. Turned out it was handyman doing some more repairs waiting on the alarm code. Cops said I did the right thing.

Vacant houses are an easy target.

Interesting how you are beating yourself up about self-preservation in hindsight.

After that night with the girl screaming "somebody help me" in my apt parking lot, I told a couple of cop friends about it to hear their thoughts. Both of them said if there is ever any doubt or something just doesn't look right, call the cops and let them deal with it. Unless you pull a Mrs. Kravitz and call them every single day with BS, you ain't bothering them. And as many on here have said, a CHL doesn't come with a cape.

My CHL instructor is a former Ranger with several tours in Iraq. He said his mantra, then, and still now, is to taking whatever actions are necessary to ensure he goes home at night. There is absolutely no harm in self preservation instincts, even if that means just walking away.

This is why you shouldn't beat yourself up over self preservation:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7780048

Sometimes it's even the people who got foreclosed on coming back to the house and looting. The house next door to my parents got foreclosed on back in August, and near the end of the month the woman who lived there had backed a U-haul truck into the driveway and was busily loading away one day, even though we knew she already had all of the furniture out. My dad got curious and went over and looked in a window the next day and saw that the entire kitchen had been stripped... cabinets, appliances, lighting, everything. They also saw her come back one day and try to get in, but by that time the locks had been changed.

What about pulling into the neighbors driveway?
You wouldn't even have to get out of the truck right away. It might go a long way in prevention if a thief thinks someone does go there even periodically.

Just a thought, I don't know what I would do.

I'm not second-guessing my decision to focus primarily on my safety and the safety of my family. But I can't stand crime or criminals* and I'm a big proponent of citizens doing thier part to identify criminals and help bring them to justice. I'm just second-guessing whether I could have gotten close enough to get a license plate number.

Criminal activity can take a stronghold in an area when people become so scared of the criminals that they won't risk reporting them. I wouldn't want to consider myself part of that type of problem.


*This is a ground-breaking statement, I know. What I mean is that crime absolutely pisses me off. I know it does most of you as well. I don't think our society does nearly enough to catch and adequately punish criminals or to deter crime. And people in charge like the current DA in Dallas County are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[This message has been edited by TxLawDawg (edited 11/12/2010 12:15p).]

I wouldve called the police, and if you could get the plate then give them that along with a description of the car and perp.

I learned my lesson from this: During law school I lived in Houston in a real crappy part of town in a crappy apartment complex. One Sunday night I got home probably 11:00 pm and I saw these two young kids, around (11 and 13 yrs old) walking through the parking lot suspiciously. I dont know what made it suspicious, other than the fact that it was 11:00 on a sunday night and they had shi&^y parents, but it was suspicious. So I called the non emergency police number and reported it. About an hour or so later I got a call from the cops. Turns out PD had an unmarked unit in the area and sent someone over and they saw the kids breaking into cars and nabbed them. PD said they had been getting reports of car burglaries and it probably had been these kids.

I suspect PD always had someone in the area because it was such a crappy place, and I also suspect since they were juveniles they probably didnt get much punishment, but I do know the police were grateful for my call and at least in this case it turned into something.

Cops will admit they cant be everywhere so they appreciate getting tips like this from witness citizens.

I would have called the cops and given them what information I could have without putting myself in harm's way.

Your neighborhood is just as much a part of your home as your house is.

If the cops had showed up quickly and the guy had nothing to hide, no harm no foul. I would hope that any one of my neighbors would do the same thing had it been my house the guy was walking away from.

I would've called the cops. I always do (usually on the non-emergency) any time I see anything suspicious. Even if you just give them a description, they have every call in a database and every once in a while they put together a couple of facts out of the haystack and some bad guy goes to the big house for a long, long time.

One time, back in Oregon, a call to the non-emergency number after a car with a loud exhaust kept buzzing down our quiet cul-de-sac turned into a serious drug bust on my neighbors' kids and some other guys. The kids running nose-candy for pocket change and the occasional thrill, and someone they'd pissed off (the driver with the fart can) was looking for their place so he could shoot it up to scare them. It wasn't in a bad part of town, either -- think Cinco Ranch type area.

you did the right thing. this is what insurance is for. your life is not worth their $500 deductible.