An hour ago, some idiot woman began knocking at our door -- and front windows -- and didn't stop. We called the police -- it took them a while to get here (~8-10 minutes). In the mean time, I readied my handgun, got to the area of my house with the most protection from someone entering the front but still with a line of sight, while my wife was on with the 911 operator. Police finally got here, then they knocked on my door to say the girl was looking for her boyfriend and somehow had traced his phone to my area or my house -- I couldn't gather which. I'm standing there in the front door walkway in my underwear (make your own jokes about that) yelling at her that she damn near got herself shot. Once they got here, the officers seemed to handle it professionally. Said they had been really busy tonight.

Been online for the last half hour since I'm a little too keyed up to go back to sleep.

I'm going to get a pair of shooting gloves and practice with them at the range. While waiting for the police, with the gun in my hand, my palms started to sweat a little. This was, by far, the closest I've ever come to potentially using deadly force. Just passing on the glove idea.

So while you were protecting your house, your wife was doing that chicks boyfriend?

Way to man up and scare her off. Why the gun? A fat man in his draws should be enough to run off any young chick. Worked in college didn't it?

That's what I read.

Was she hot?

Rule #1

My wife keeps a floor fan on full blast plus a noisemachine.

You'd have to blow the front door open with explosives for me to hear it.

The alarm is always set but i can't hear anything once I'm in the bedroom.

Midnight knocks make me kind of nervous.

What kind of pistol, and what kind of grips do you have on it?

Glad it worked out, OP. I imagine that was absolutely nerve wracking.

Great the police showed up and did their job but when SHTF and you don't have the full picture, nice being prepared. 8-10 minutes is a long time and if they are going to come through the front door, it's great that we live in Merica and can protect ourselves!

Had a kinda sorta somewhat similar occurrence a few springs back.
Was just me, the dog and one daughter. Had all the windows and doors open to let the breezes blow through like we do every spring and fall. About midnight the normal dog huffing and puffing switched to growling with his nose on the bedroom screen door leading to the back yard. He never growls.
I opened an eye and saw a tall silhouette go past the bedroom screen door. I grabbed my pistol and yelled at the intruder. The intruder bolted into the backyard away from the house. My first thought was there could be more intruders in the house. So, I cleared most of the house - going room by room on the way to the front of the house.
I immediately thought about going out the front to cut the intruders off from the backyard to the front of the house as they exited the backyard. But then I thought that if I'd be actively putting myself in front of potentially multiple intruders and in a shoot/ don't shoot situation. I concluded that if I didn't have to, I certainly didn't want to, so I went back through the house towards the backyard to clear the backyard and allow the intruders an out.
As I the dog and I went into the backyard, he ran past me and started barking. I thought "there's still someone still in the backyard". My heart was pounding. went around the corner and over the front sight blade I saw the dog hunched over a figure sitting on the concrete huddled up against the house and heard "Dad, stop pointing that gun at me...".
I learned several things that night - I got ahead of myself and I'm doing so made logic errors - not clearing the whole house and not accounting for everyone in the household in an intruder scenario; but I also was able to apply logic by not attempting to force the shoot/ don't shoot scenario.
I also learned that teenagers haven't gotten any smarter than when I was one.

It's still a bad idea to just say "what do you need?"

You might consider different grips for your pistol. You may not have time to put on gloves. If you have a pistol with removable grips, look at some textured G10 grips. If it's a Glock or other polymer pistol, Talon grips are awesome.

Sorry for the rough night. Might also consider bear spray, for encounters that don't have to turn deadly. Not saying you can't keep a gun. But a gentler option is nice to have too.

Good thing she wasn't a Dallas PD officer!

mleroyl said:

---

Had a kinda sorta somewhat similar occurrence a few springs back.
Was just me, the dog and one daughter. Had all the windows and doors open to let the breezes blow through like we do every spring and fall. About midnight the normal dog huffing and puffing switched to growling with his nose on the bedroom screen door leading to the back yard. He never growls.
I opened an eye and saw a tall silhouette go past the bedroom screen door. I grabbed my pistol and yelled at the intruder. The intruder bolted into the backyard away from the house. My first thought was there could be more intruders in the house. So, I cleared most of the house - going room by room on the way to the front of the house.
I immediately thought about going out the front to cut the intruders off from the backyard to the front of the house as they exited the backyard. But then I thought that if I'd be actively putting myself in front of potentially multiple intruders and in a shoot/ don't shoot situation. I concluded that if I didn't have to, I certainly didn't want to, so I went back through the house towards the backyard to clear the backyard and allow the intruders an out.
As I the dog and I went into the backyard, he ran past me and started barking. I thought "there's still someone still in the backyard". My heart was pounding. went around the corner and over the front sight blade I saw the dog hunched over a figure sitting on the concrete huddled up against the house and heard "Dad, stop pointing that gun at me...".
I learned several things that night - I got ahead of myself and I'm doing so made logic errors - not clearing the whole house and not accounting for everyone in the household in an intruder scenario; but I also was able to apply logic by not attempting to force the shoot/ don't shoot scenario.
I also learned that teenagers haven't gotten any smarter than when I was one.

---

Do you have a light on your gun?

I keep A high power flashlight on night stand. A blast of light will seriously blind/ disorient bad guys and give you a huge tactical advantage. Learn to operate the light and shoot at same time. Thanks for posting, reading all of this has been helpful for me to think through again.

tx4guns said:

---

What kind of pistol, and what kind of grips do you have on it?

---

I laughed.

Usually I just ask "who's there?"

Had the same happen at a gas station. Only time I've ever drawn my weapon.

I had an attempt made on me to be robbed at gunpoint at a car wash in East Texas about 7 years ago. I pulled my weapon prepared to defend myself and thankfully the dude ran off with no shots fired. Its a lot different talking about it than when it actually happens to you. Glad you and family are ok. Many times everyday in this country a victim of crime is not.

Gunny456 said:

---

I had an attempt made on me to be robbed at gunpoint at a car wash in East Texas about 7 years ago. I pulled my weapon prepared to defend myself and thankfully the dude ran off with no shots fired. Its a lot different talking about it than when it actually happens to you. Glad you and family are ok. Many times everyday in this country a victim of crime is not.

---

Username checks out.


OP, what if she needed help? You were armed, why not just ask WTH she was doing?

Get a Blue Lacy.

BigBrother said:

---

Gunny456 said:

---

I had an attempt made on me to be robbed at gunpoint at a car wash in East Texas about 7 years ago. I pulled my weapon prepared to defend myself and thankfully the dude ran off with no shots fired. Its a lot different talking about it than when it actually happens to you. Glad you and family are ok. Many times everyday in this country a victim of crime is not.

---

Username checks out.


OP, what if she needed help? You were armed, why not just ask WTH she was doing?

---

He called the cops. If she needed help, they'd take care of it. Otherwise what else did you expect him to do? Open the door for her if she said she needed help? That's how home invasions happen.

How crazy is this chick to be tracking down her boyfriend via an app on his phone at 3am? You think this dude knows that app is on there or that she has access?

Quote:

---

Was she hot?

---

No.

I never got the story but I'm now thinking that she wasn't there looking for a boyfriend who she thought was humping someone. I think she was looking for him to let her in to stay there and in whatever state of mind she was in, couldn't figure out why he wasn't answering the door.

As far as handling things differently, I guess I could have. I had no idea who was there and what their intentions were. I didn't know if my telling them to leave would have set them off or not. My front windows are not shatterproof -- something I think I might change -- and there was no way I was going to open the door and give anyone a possibility of getting in. Basically, I was taking a defensive position and if the house somehow got breached, I would have had to defend myself and my property. We've talked about a front door camera and may now get that, but given what we have, I would handle the situation the same way tonight if it happens again. Calling the police is a no-brainer and should always be done in this situation. Both officers I talked to said I handled it right. Not trying to sound defensive but be careful about what suggestions you make when you've never been in a similar situation. Even though now it seems pretty benign, my wife was scared ****less and I didn't fall asleep until 5:30 or 6:00 this morning.

Staying inside, Keeping the door locked, ready to protect your family and hoping the cops got there in time to not make it your problem.

You did just fine man.

Quote:

---

What kind of pistol, and what kind of grips do you have on it?

---

H&K VP9sk. It came with grip variations but I haven't changed the default grip. I haven't even fired it at the range because my range time from yesteryear has been cut significantly due to a lot of factors. I will be at the range soon.

8-10 minutes and you couldn't slip on a pair of shorts???

This happened to me at like 3am. Door bell. Pounding on door. Boxers and my 1911 working towards the front so I could see who it was / what was going on.

Neighbor telling me a sprinkler head broke and I was shooting a jet of water into the sky. Told them a note or telling me at a reasonable time would have been more appropriate.

Quote:

---

why not just ask WTH she was doing

---

Because I would like for the person outside to have SOME doubt that someone is home in case that would make them go away. As far as help goes, you have to almost know where you're going to get to my street. It is very unlikely that someone who either doesn't live in the close area or doesn't know someone in the area would be there. By the time the police arrived, they had been knocking for well over 20 minutes. It was obvious that they wanted me to answer my door, for whatever reason, and weren't needing general, urgent help.

Quote:

---

A fat man in his draws should be enough to run off any young chick. Worked in college didn't it?

---

Was that your experience?

I have a video doorbell and a hub, and have it set up if the doorbell senses motion at night to turn on the lamp in the master bedroom. A couple of weeks ago, it flipped on. My heart started racing and I grabbed my gun and started walking around in the dark and looking out of the windows. After about 5 minutes, I went back to bed. Checked my alert on my phone the next morning and didn't see anyone trigger it.