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Intruder at Night

4K views 49 replies 46 participants last post by  bob21bobby 
#1 ·
3:20am You and your family are fast asleep. You wake up to noise in the house. Not your typical, "better check it out just to be safe" noise, but a definite something is going on noise.
As you round the kitchen,you catch sight of an intruder, and luckily you've seen him first. Your decision has to happen in less than a second, do you;

1. Drop the intruder before he has a chance to react.

2. Challenge the intruder with commands to identify himself.

3. Try to avoid being seen while calling police.
 
#3 ·
In NC now that he is in the house he must pose a threat.

(a) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence is justified in using any degree of force that the occupant reasonably believes is necessary, including deadly force, against an intruder to prevent a forcible entry into the home or residence or to terminate the intruder's unlawful entry (i) if the occupant reasonably apprehends that the intruder may kill or inflict serious bodily harm to the occupant or others in the home or residence, or (ii) if the occupant reasonably believes that the intruder intends to commit a felony in the home or residence.

#2 for me first. If he runs out the hole he came in he will live to see another day anything else #1 goes into effect.
 
#5 ·
#2. I (loudly & abruptly) challenge him first because I want him to face me for a visual ID check. If he does ANYTHING except immediately follow my instructions...I will consider that a threat upon my life and will fire with lethal intent. That challenge serves two purposes. It prevents me from shooting someone I know/love who has foolishly (but innocently) entered my house AND it makes my SD shooting front/center of mass (easier to justify). I will NOT shoot the intruder as a surprise or in the back if he's flying toward his entrance/exit. My interest is in my protection...not his punishment.
 
#13 ·
IF they've gotten that far...

The intruder (friend OR foe) has obviously done something to the Rottie and the Am. Staff. that run our house. My dogs are alert, they consider it their house. They take trespassing personally (I've gotten bum rushed by my own dogs coming through the back door in snow gear). Friends wait for us to put the dogs away before they come in. Most times, they're just SUPER happy to see you, but that is AFTER we make it clear that we're happy to see you.

For some reason, when I hold my 870 my trigger finger gets kinda' twitchy. Assuming my dogs are unconscious or dead, she goes to work the instant the intruder fails to obey my first bellowed command to get on the ground.
 
#50 ·
The intruder (friend OR foe) has obviously done something to the Rottie and the Am. Staff. that run our house. My dogs are alert, they consider it their house. They take trespassing personally (I've gotten bum rushed by my own dogs coming through the back door in snow gear). Friends wait for us to put the dogs away before they come in. Most times, they're just SUPER happy to see you, but that is AFTER we make it clear that we're happy to see you.
+3...for three German Sheps. Smallest is 110 lbs, goes up to 120 lbs. Any intruder that can get around those bad boys is going to BEG to be put out of his misery:smashfreakB:.
 
#17 ·
Some of us live in states like Commiefornia so we have to bark some loud commands right before we shoot.
 
#19 ·
I will always positively identify my target before firing. I have heard too many stories of relatives coming in late as a surprise, or friends pulling pranks late at night, etc. I will not fire on someone unless I have them illuminated and know they truly don't belong there.
 
#20 ·
If they're in my house after hours they're uninvited and don't belong. If I don't hear them screaming in agony from the pitbull ripping off limbs my assumption is that they did away with the dog and all bets are off. #1 - bang bang bang...no questions asked.:gah:.

All of my family/friends know better than to randomly show up in my home in the middle of the night without further warning (ie phone, cell phone, door bell, knocking yelling screaming etc...). Other than family and friends (which I don't have to worry about), no one else belongs. Everyone belongs in one of 3 groups when found in my home in the middle of the night: Family, Friend, or Foe. You wont be in my home unannounced if you're in groups 1 or 2, that means anyone else is in group 3.
 
#21 ·
Should I pull my dogs off of the intruder first? :nutkick:
 
#22 ·
Well there went ANOTHER key board...


My friends/family know I a WELL armed and know to give me the heads up.

My GF failed to inform me that a friend was coming over early in the morning. I woke to a loud sound that sounded to me like someone kicking in the door....then I hear the tone of the alarm keypad (from the door being opened/closed). I keep my Kimber and 2 spare mags under the edge of my bed. As I am rolling off the bed to take cover and aquire my trusted Kimber, my GF yells "its (friends name)"

I WAS LIVID........and they found out how serious I am about the safety of my household.

This incident did make me feel better in one way tho....
I sleep like a rock. I can sleep through just about anything.
BUT.... I heard noises that were out of place and it woke me up in a hurry!!!!
 
#26 ·
Missouri is now Castle Doctrine so I suppose #1 in most situations would be justified. However;

I am not pre-programed to just fire automatically.

There may be situations where I would be compelled to choose #1, but most often I'm thinking more along the lines of choosing #2, for a variety of reasons.

A) (and not the least of which) I am not blood thirsty looking for the first opportunity to legally shoot someone.

B) I am trained in, and fairly proficient in, close quarters combat (armed & unarmed), weapon retention & disarming techniques and handling armed subjects so I feel a bit more confident in my tactical skills than someone like my wife or many other folks.

C) I like to be able to make a positive ID on someone before I shoot, using the element of surprise and a blinding tactical light like my Surefire or my Glock mounted Insight M3. (for some reason Mr. Murphy likes to ride shotgun in my ride and I don't like the sickening thought of accidentally shooting any friendlies, no matter how remote the chance.)

D) I like the idea of if I do have to shoot him, I like the idea of it being in the front with him facing me as opposed to being shot in the back. (yeah, I know... shooting in the back can at times be effectively explained and defendable in court... but again, Murphy likes being my co-pilot, and why go down that road, if I don't need to!)

Now, in the original post, I see the Intruder and he hasn't seen me... So, before I illuminate him and give a commanding verbal challenge... I am going to take up a position of tactical advantage with a wall against my back so I can't be out flanked by a commrade of his and observe him for a second to get my bearings and see what's what!

If, while his back was to me, I could obviously see a weapon in his hand... I would absolutely open fire without hesitation and without a warning.

Other than that, I would probably challenge him to freeze and shoot if he failed to obey commands. Then order him to the ground, and again shoot if he failed to obey commands.

Now my wife on the other hand... Will not engage in conversation and if she is home alone and finds an intruder in the house, she will shoot without warning! Her situation and circumstances are totally different than mine.

The main caveat as in all situations... I play it as I see it! Nothing is set in stone and all those types of encounters are very fluid in nature.

The Castle Doctrine law in Missouri is unchallenged in court so far and as far as I'm concerned, it is only a minor safety stop for the citizens. (looks good in theory, but in practice... has yet to be proven out!) To me, it still is not a license to blast away without the possibility of some consequences I may not have thought of yet. And I certainly don't want to be a "test case!"

JMHO... YMMV
 
#28 ·
First of all, you should have done a bed check before going any further into the kitchen, living room, etc. Once I have made sure that everyone is in place, then you can pretty much be assured the person in the kitchen is a threat. Nothing was said about having a light and illuminating the potential threat up before engaging with gunfire. Identifying your threat has to be #1 because you don’t want to shoot a loved one or friend!!!

If they start to turn on me, then I would probably shoot because I have to assume they are armed. Of course, I would attempt to use verbal commands first, but hey, if they turned suddenly or against my command, I would do what I have to and not feel bad about it later!
 
#32 ·
Well in my house at night (except the weekends, we have grand children) it's just me and my loving wife. If I hear noises (most likely the alarm going off since I have it and use it) I bolt to the keypad with my LDA1445 to see if the info will tell me what the heck is going on, and then I decide to either 1. turn the alarm off and reset it since bell south is screwing with the phone lines again, or 2. have my wife go into the bathroom and "hunker down" with her gun while I check things out. But here in TN if someone breaks into your home according to the law they are there to do you harm and you have every right to protect yourself.

On a side not I know that if this ever happens there will be a few thing happen that I will have no (or little) control over, 1. my 150 gal salt water fish tank but the front entry door will probally become a very wet mess in the living room, 2. the computer in the office (still in the line of fire but through 2 layers of sheetrock) will probally be a lost cause, and 3. my wife will finally get her wish, for me to finish paying the hardwood in the living room.

It's interesting that this comes up now, I did have an instance to where the alarm goes off in the middle of the night (I'm a heavy sleeper and when I say heavy I mean heavy) without thinking I was up with my firearm in my hand, safety off and was beside the keypad in the master bedroom before I really knew what was happening. as I said before, bellsouth (guess now it's AT&junk) was screwing with the phone lines and set off my alarm. REset the alarm and went back to bed. Felt proud that even in my "sleep" mode I knew what had to be done and was ready for it.

Now if someone actually is stupid enough to break into my home (I own an alarm company and have alarm system, cell backup, and video recording with night vision (and most of the people around here know it)) I feel sorry for their family because I WILL protect mine.
 
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