You can arm chair quarter back and run all the home invasion scenarios through your head till the cows come home, but...
Until you're actually faced with the alarm going off at O-dark-thirty, you won't know where your short comings are. I wrote a post about my experience awhile back and what I learned and my short comings.
And heck NO! It's not good practice... It took five years off my life and at my age, I don't have another 5 years to spare :wink:
Ah, why not... I'll re-post my experience again for anyone interested in the long read. Note to self: Self, you were 59 when this occurred 1/2 a year ago, now your 65, calm down.
WOULDN'T EVER HAPPEN TO ME
The wife and I were deep asleep when this ear piercing sound woke us up. Coming out of such a deep sleep, it took me a moment to realize it was the wailing of our ADT burglar alarm. If any of you have an ADT system with that ear piercing whistling siren, you know what I’m talking about. You can't communicate in person without yelling, much less hear a phone ring or communicate on a telephone.
We have had this system for about a year and a half and have never had any false alarms. I was thinking of that and many other things as I grabbed my Remington 870 Express pump action 12 ga. Shotgun, loaded with 9 pellets of 00 buckshot leaning next to the chest of drawers. I quickly realized as I cautiously rounded the bedroom door the long gun is just too unwieldy for all the corners and configuration of my home. So I quickly back tracked and retrieved my Ruger SP101 .357 magnum revolver.
I had never practiced clearing my home in the event of a home invasion, as I envisioned we would retreat to the master bedroom, call 9-1-1 and stand our ground in the bedroom until the Sheriff's department arrived. Our children are grown and flew the coop, so no one should be here other than my wife and I.
Shaking hands and somewhat confused on what to do next, not being able to hear anything because of the ear-piercing siren, I decided the siren had to be turned off because it could not be tolerated for any length of time, and I couldn't hear to make a phone call. The single alarm control panel is located in the kitchen at the opposite end of the house. The siren is located on the hallway wall half way between our master bedroom and kitchen control panel.
As I slowly and carefully made my way down the hall while checking for intruders, the siren was actually hurting my ears, and my hands were shaking. We always keep a living room lamp light on so I did not grab my Surefire flashlight kept next to the revolver. After checking the living room, dining room and kitchen and seeing it was clear, I disabled the siren. What a head relief!
Fortunately having a pair of reading glasses near the alarm control panel I checked the code on the read out. Code 02, basement motion detector. This is where I always suspected to be the most logical place for a BG to enter. The motion detector immediately activates the alarm, not the 45 second count down for the windows and doors.
At that moment the telephone in the living room rings, we don’t have a phone in the bedrooms. I’m certain it’s ADT calling about the alarm. The wife had followed me down a few moments later.
The door leading to the basement has the standard doorknob lock, a dead bolt and one of those useless chain things with the tiny screws securing it. I told the wife to answer the phone as I am covering the basement door hoping no one will come barging through. The ADT person tells my wife, “we have received an alarm from your address, Code 02 basement motion detector, what is your password?” The wife is relaying this information to me as my eyes are trained on the basement door. Fortunately with the adrenaline dump and shaking hands I remembered the password.
The ADP person asked my wife, “are you going to check the basement or do you want us to send the police?” I thought for a moment… The best course of action was to get the police here quick. She informed my wife they are calling. It was probably 4-5 minutes from the time the alarm went off until ADT called, assuming I immediately awoke when the alarm went off.
I have a police scanner sitting close to the alarm panel I seldom use and thought this was an opportune time to turn it on to monitor the Sheriffs progress. I live in EBFE and sure enough, the deputy sheriff called dispatch for directions to get here.
The dispatcher called and informed my wife that the deputy was here and unchaining my driveway gate. The deputy later informed me it was policy to call the homeowner before arrival for safety reasons (home owner with gun). It took roughly 30 minutes for the deputy to arrive.
While waiting for the police to arrive I happened to look at the clock, a few minutes after 3 A.M. Thinking to myself, from what I’ve read, two to three o’clock seems to be the prime time for home invasions. Like most other places, we have a county drug problem and allot of meth and crack heads.
Seeing the police car head lights driving up my 200+ yard driveway, I pondered what to do with my handgun. Put it away or keep it near and cover it with a towel or something. Since he was on scene I felt comfortable enough to take it back where it came from.
I didn’t know if he would come to the front or back door so I turned on the front and back door lights and opened both the doors. He cautiously approached the back door and announced sheriffs department, sheriff's department and I made myself visible and told him to come in.
I gave him a brief description of what happened and the alarm code. He told me the first bit of good news was my gate was closed and chained when he arrived (no pad lock, just a clip).
He then cautiously opened the basement door with flashlight in hand, turned the basement light on and slowly started down the stairs. I’m thinking to myself, dude, you need to have your handgun drawn? I’m reasonably certain someone broke in and might still be there. But, I’m not about to say anything as he is the professional and is trained, it’s my over active imagination probably.
After what seemed to be an hour, but probably only 4-5 minutes, I hear the officer coming up the steps. He was down there for quite some time. Now I’m really wondering where they broke in from and how much damage was done. He asks me a couple questions about my garage door, something about if it locks? The single car garage is separated from the basement with a flimsy hollow door and dead bolt that was not locked.
With great anticipation, he finally tells me everything looks secure and there was no break in. I can’t tell you the relief my wife and I experienced at that news. It still took us a few hours to calm down before we could attempt to go back to bed as the sun was rising.
Before departing, the deputy complemented me on my Liberty safe in the basement and we talked a good ten minutes on what could have caused a motion detector false alarm and crime statistics in my county, etc. before he left. A good guy!
Lessons learned: While I am fortunate this was a false alarm and grateful for such, what if it was the real thing?
After the deputy departed, one of my first thoughts was, I need to get me a good alert / guard dog. But in retrospect that might not be a good thing. I had a good alert dog at my previous residence but has since passed away from old age. We had the same ADP alarm system and my wife burnt something in the oven and set off the smoke alarm. The dog went crazy yelping and running around from the high pitch loud noise. Seems to me that would be one more distraction to deal with in an emergency?
The shotgun is too unwieldy for me to use indoors with the configuration of my home. Guess I’ll put it back in the safe as it is a better outdoor defense gun, and I don’t “plan” on checking out or confronting anyone outdoors at night.
I have a phone jack in the bedroom. I need to get a phone for it because that’s the number the police will call upon arrival, the telephone number the ADT people call and give the police.
I have a set of electronic earmuffs in my range bag. I’m going to put them next to my home defense pistol. I wonder if they will muffle the ear piercing alarm? With the alarm off they do enhance your hearing significantly, which is an advantage.
Most importantly, I need to get some training and work on my mind set. Instead of trembling hands, I should have been pissed someone has the balls to break into my home.
For me anyway, seems my best laid plans went out the window when that alarm went off! It also a different story when it’s daytime and you’re prepared and alert compared to at your most vulnerable, asleep in bed.
In retrospect, I would have preferred to retreat / remain in the bedroom and defend us from there until the police arrived. But I had not anticipated having to communicate with the siren noise and having to make my way to the kitchen alarm panel.
Prior to this incident my wife thought I was semi-paranoid keeping a self defense weapon close at all times in our home and my security measures. I think she now realizes in today's society it's not wise to get to secure or complacent even in the security of your own home.