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locked and loaded on an intruder last night
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Naderhood
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31 Oct ’13 - 5:38 pm
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Laying in bed with the wife and we were both just about out when we heard a banging/crashing noise downstairs. We both sat up and listened more intently to see if we could identify the sound. Then sh*t got real as we both saw light from a flashlight light up our stairwell leading upstairs. I grabbed my .45 and for the first time since I was deployed I loaded a round into the chamber with the intentions of shooting somebody. Our room and our sons room are both upstairs so I told my wife to stay put (our son was sleeping in bed with us) and I cleared the upstairs and then headed downstairs. I cleared all the rooms and was relieved when I didnt find anybody. Then I decided to check our cars in case the sound was somebody breaking into them. When I turned the light on I saw a cop car outside so I hurried up and got dressed and went out to see what the deal was. The cops were in my neighbors house, somebody had broken in while she was at a friends house watching the world series. They were looking for her grandson as he was the suspected robber. Whoever did it knew she wasnt home because her car was left there and she was picked up by a friend. They also knew where her valuables were as nothing was rummaged through, just the valuables taken with no evidence of searching or tossing stuff around. My neighbor is elderly and lives alone. Pretty much all my neighbors are senior citizens. I was relieved I didnt have to shoot anyone and my neighbor wasnt hurt and they had an idea on who did it. A couple things I learned from this:

1) I need a light on my pistol. Somebody could easily hide in a dark spot and I would have to get close enough to see them that they would have a chance at disarming me.

2) I need to get a pistol for my wife that stays on her side of the room. She's a gamer and had a phillips head screwdriver (LOL) and was 100% prepared to end somebody's life with it. I realized that if this was a situation where some armed robbers came in with force and I got shot or was somehow unable to stop them, they would have no trouble hurting my family as well, so she would need a pistol too.

3) Being a combat veteran has truly given me an advantage in situations like these. Soon as I realized what the deal was it was go time. No nervous shaking, no hesitation, no second guessing. It was find the bad guys and stop them, end of story. I feel incredibly grateful to have that training and experience to fall back on. I cant imagine what it would have been like to have to do that with no preparation or training to depend on. In my fighting career I have always had this advantage against my opponents as well in that I dont get flustered or mentally affected by the fight as I have been in worse situations.

4) Prob the best outcome here is that my wife is now 100% on board with getting a pistol for herself and keeping it in her bedside table. Before this she would make me keep my pistol in the closet on the top shelf and now she wants it more accessible. Its actually a good thing that she is also thinking about these things now rather than it just being me that worries about them.

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Naderhood
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31 Oct ’13 - 5:50 pm
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PS- the light that we saw in our stairwell was the cops shining their light in my front bushes making sure nobody was hiding. The front door faces the stairwell so it looked just like somebody at the bottom of the stairs with a flashlight.

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PorkChopsMmm
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31 Oct ’13 - 8:36 pm
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Nader, I picked up a cheap, but very well reviewed, weapon light. Linked below. It isn't a surefire but the price is right and it is rugged. Just an FYI if you are on a budget.

31YrzVQdwiL.jpg

qid=1383266076&sr=8-1&keywords=pistol+light

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B17
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31 Oct ’13 - 8:56 pm
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Shotgun bro. Load it with bird shot. Perp gets a wall of lead no matter how good your aim is...and it will most likely stop in the nearest wall.

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slondeau
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31 Oct ’13 - 9:27 pm
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Wow dude, scary shit. I drew on a repo man a few weeks back.. (didn't know that's who he was at first) Dude was shining a bright light into my yard and house at 3am. Wife was still up, wakes me up. I go outside with this:

MZa6GvQ.jpg

They drove by a few times, and they stopped next to my neighbor's house.. which is vacant and for sale. Shining the light at him, I yell - WHAT ARE YOU DOING? He's on the passenger side of the truck, and reaches in, and I yell again "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS! NOW!" he gets a little flashlight and walks over. I ask him what he has in his hand, and he says, "a flashlight... just like yours" I kind of chuckled and said, "not like mine". I point the light down so he still can see that he was starting down the barrel of 15 rounds of 45 ACP. Turned out, he was a repo man, like I mentioned, and he was looking for an old tenant from the house next door. Their GPS kept putting them at my place, so that's why they were scanning my yard. Plus they were looking for a Chevy pickup, which I also own (but mine is old and busted)

To your questions - Definitely get a light.Mine is a SureFire and it was about $230 I think but it's awesome. If cost is an issue, you can always get a handheld light, which in training low light conditions in a shoot-house I found to be MUCH easier to handle and manipulate than the weapon mounted one. I had it mounted on my Sig 1911 and it was difficult to turn on and off. I have a Streamlight ProTac 2L that was like $40 or something, and it's awesome. Takes 2 CR123 batteries though, which can be costly.

Definitely a good idea. I would suggest maybe a revolver or something like the bodyguard 380 with a laser sight for her.

That is outstanding! I have never served, or seen combat, but the few times I've had to pull my weapon and clear a house or like the scenario above - instinct and the little training I've had did kick in. It was AFTER that my adrenaline dumped and I felt like I was going to puke. Couldn't geo back to sleep that night until it was almost time to get up!

Glad you and your family are safe and that it turned out to be "nothing". Also glad you were prepared and reacted the way you did!

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Naderhood
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1 Nov ’13 - 7:21 am
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Thanks, fellas.

I have a shotgun and some birdshot for home defense but its too long for me to be comfortable clearing rooms and coming around corners with it. Just a preference from my military days. I also like having the option to use my free hand in case I do encounter someone or need to turn on a light or move something or whatever. These experiences are good for improving your home defense options. I'm kind of glad it happened but at the same time it makes you feel like you're never prepared enough.

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K
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1 Nov ’13 - 10:03 am
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I'm glad you guys are safe, devils advocate here though, why clear the house versus securing the room you were in and calling 911? Say it was someone bad, and something bad happened to you while you were downstairs or checking the cars, what about DBT and little danger then? I did the same thing one night when our alarm went off in the restaurant, I threw on clothes and ran up to the restaurant, then it struck me, what if it was a ploy and while I was up front, someone was entering my home right then with my wife and daughter alone.

But it did make me think, which was also why we started adding home security layers to the house.

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Naderhood
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1 Nov ’13 - 10:39 am
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Well, in hindsight, I'm looking more at the statistical aspect of it. The chances of getting robbed in general are low. The chances of getting robbed while home are even lower. On top of that, getting robbed while home and the intruders having weapons has such a small chance of happening that combined with having experience with using weapons and being more familiar with my home and its layout makes me feel comfortable with meeting any intruder head on. I also think that my neighborhood does a pretty good job at being aware of what goes on and who moves through our area. Everybody is old and home all day doing old people stuff that for somebody unfamiliar to be in the neighborhood casing the joint would be fairly obvious. The latest gossip from last week was when our mailman was sick and they had a new guy delivering mail for one day. Personally, I think that it'd be more prudent to plan for a forceful entry than somebody luring me out. The odds of that are just way too miniscule for me to plan for imo.

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