Turned out to be nothing, but drew entering my house after getting a call.

[KindOfBlue]

I got a call from my younger sister, who had just returned home to an empty house from summer school. She said that as she pulled in the driveway with her bike, she saw our rear window shade being lowered. I instructed her to go to a neighbor and friend's house and wait for my call.
I was about 5 minutes away from home, so I drove "in a spirited manner" the remainder of the way. Upon arriving, I saw no signs of forced entry on the exterior, so I grabbed my handgun and entered my house. If I saw signs of entry, I would have dialed 911 and told the operator what was going on.
Keeping my ears open, I went straight to my room and grabbed my Mossy 500, un-triggerlocked it, and chambered a round. I keep it stored with a full magazine of 00 buckshot, but trigger locked.
My heart was pounding as I cleared the remainder of the house. Turned out to be nothing, it was just her paranoid mind playing tricks on her. But it sure got my adrenaline going, just being in that mind-set that a BG may be lurking somewhere within our house. It was my first time being in a situation like this, and I'm glad to say although a bit uneasy, I kept my cool under pressure. I even managed to employ proper trigger discipline, my index finger was along the trigger guard with my safety off.
I'm sure glad it was a false alarm.
Any similar situations happen to you guys? How'd you react?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Thunder71]

This should have been a call to 911 in my opinion.

If nobody is in my house but a possible intruder, I'm not going in either. How do you know it was a trick her mind was playing? 5 minutes is a lot of time to get out.

[KindOfBlue]

This should have been a call to 911 in my opinion.

If nobody is in my house but a possible intruder, I'm not going in either.

I guess we're all different...I personally didn't even think twice about clearing it myself

How do you know it was a trick her mind was playing? 5 minutes is a lot of time to get out.

Nothing was missing or out of the ordinary...my laptop is in plain sight along with video game consoles and such, so if there was someone there, I doubt he'd leave without them. Or have the common curtosy to re-deadbolt my front door

[dukalmighty]

One of the most dangerous things you can do is clear a house,even with training,Having your sister go to the neighbours was good,but Cops get paid to investigate possible burglaries in progress.If I suspect my home has been breached I'm calling 911 and telling them there is a very good chance they could be heavily armed,I'm staying back,I got homeowners insurance,

[.45]

A few weeks ago my wife and I where watching a movie and my son came out and said he heard someone knocking on his window. I figured he was dreaming or letting his imagination get the best of him. I carried him back to bed and tucked him in. 15 minutes later he came back out and said he heard scratching on his window. To ease his mind I said I would go check it out. I spent about 10 minutes looking around with a flashlight (I was armed with my EDC gun).

I told him nobody was out there and it must of been the wind he heard. We went in his room and as I was putting him to bed I saw something move behind his curtain. It was about the size of a mans head.

Now Im a little concerned. We live outside of town and although houses are near ours it is somewhat remote. I didn't even think to call 911 (dumb on my part) I went outside and couldn't find anything. As Im going back into the house I hear something behind me I quickly turn and aim at the nieghbors black lab. She must of been jumping up to my sons window causing all the excitemint. I felt dumb but relieved.

[buckeye .45]

To the OP, how much training do you have clearing structures? I mean real, formal training.

I have a large amount of training doing it, and some real world experience doing it in combat. Clearing a structure solo is something to do only as a last resort, and is a good way to get killed if there is someone inside, as they get the defender's advantage, and element of surprise usually. I would only do it if my loved ones were at risk, and there was absolutely no other option. Otherwise, I will let the individuals that I pay (with my tax dollars) do it, and I doubt you will see them doing it by themselves either. That is their job, that is what they are trained to do, and they aren't doing it solo.

I would put that situation in the "call 911" category. Is anything in your house worth your "spirited driving" if it causes a wreck?

Just my opinion, glad no one took any of your stuff, and that no one was hurt.

[claude clay]

self clearing can get you kiled just once.

fun side is i came home 1st week i owned the house and my border collie had a s-eating grin on his blood soaked muzzle.
'so show me' i said to him and he went upstairs to the bathroom and the kid was begging 'no more, please....'

police id'd him as a neighbors kid, parents came over, we chatted, they agreed to cover broken glass and he would mow once a week for the summer.

so what was bad about that?

[SIXTO]

To the OP, how much training do you have clearing structures? I mean real, formal training.

I'm guessing none. He said he went straight to his room to get the shotgun... how many unsecured areas and rooms did you pass and leave at your 6 while doing that? Not to smart.

I don't have a huge problem with clearing your own home in a low risk situation like this, however, at least do it somewhat cautious and methodically. LEO can't and shouldn't be called every time the wind blows, some degree of self sufficiency is a good thing.

[Hopyard]

As cautious as I tend to be I would not necessarily put that in the 911 category. We all have a certain intuition and sixth sense. It really would depend on what my intuition is telling me.

I'd make a quick mental determination as to where on the 1-10 scale of realistic concern this one fell. Some cues, as OP indicated, there was no sign of forced entry, on first entering stuff in the house seemed to be in place, probably his sister's demeanor and facial expressions also conveyed some info about her level of certainty about what she saw.

If we all called the cops every time something not immediately explicable concerned us, they'd be too busy on goose chases to do their real work.

I'm not disagreeing with the idea that clearing your own house is highly dangerous. Just saying that a judgment needs to be made before making invalid calls to 911.

[KindOfBlue]

I'm guessing none. He said he went straight to his room to get the shotgun... how many unsecured areas and rooms did you pass and leave at your 6 while doing that? Not to smart.

I'm not an idiot- my room is right by my back door. I opened the door, cleared the area and entered my room for my shotgun. I didn't pass through any room without clearing it.
No formal training. It's not rocket science though. I know how to navigate corners, doors, stairwells, choke points.

As cautious as I tend to be I would not necessarily put that in the 911 category. We all have a certain intuition and sixth sense. It really would depend on what my intuition is telling me.

I'd make a quick mental determination as to where on the 1-10 scale of realistic concern this one fell. Some cues, as OP indicated, there was no sign of forced entry, on first entering stuff in the house seemed to be in place, probably his sister's demeanor and facial expressions also conveyed some info about her level of certainty about what she saw.

If we all called the cops every time something not immediately explicable concerned us, they'd be too busy on goose chases to do their real work.

I'm not disagreeing with the idea that clearing your own house is highly dangerous. Just saying that a judgment needs to be made before making invalid calls to 911.

Exactly. I made the judgment that 911 wasn't necessary.

Is anything in your house worth your "spirited driving" if it causes a wreck?

Now driving is something I do have formal training in. And yes, there are things in my house worth the wreck, IMO. But I'd never drive recklessly enough to even come close to causing a traffic incident. There just so happened to be little to no traffic so I was able to speed safely. I'm not one to weave in and out of lanes, that's just reckless.

[SIXTO]

I'm not an idiot- my room is right by my back door. I opened the door, cleared the area and entered my room for my shotgun. I didn't pass through any room without clearing it.
No formal training. It's not rocket science though. I know how to navigate corners, doors, stairwells, choke points.

Nobody said or implied you are an idiot. But, you did enter the room leaving an unsecured hallway. Thats bad juju. I'm not trying to Monday morning QB, I hate when people do that to me. But I am trying to offer constructive criticism.

[KindOfBlue]

Nobody said or implied you are an idiot. But, you did enter the room leaving an unsecured hallway. Thats bad juju. I'm not trying to Monday morning QB, I hate when people do that to me. But I am trying to offer constructive criticism.

That's what I took "not too smart" as.
My room has 2 doors to it, one that runs into the hallway and one that's 90 degrees to my rear house door. The hallway door is always locked, so I was able to enter and clear my bedroom immediately, and then proceed to grab the shotgun. Thank you for your responses, I appreciate them.

PS- thanks to whoever consolidated my posts. I'm on tapatalk right now and multi-quoted responses seem impossible :)

[Guantes]

I lean in the direction of Sixto, in that I don't see clearing without an obvious enhanced threat as a big deal. Especially if one has had training in it and better, experience also. I consider the general threat level of civilian house clearing as considerably lower than house clearing in combat. Sometimes calling 911 is not practical. During a certain period, due to certain political and criminal issues, I cleared the house every time we returned home, before anyone else entered. Calling 911 would get unpopular very quickly.

[KindOfBlue]

I lean in the direction of Sixto, in that I don't see clearing without an obvious enhanced threat as a big deal. Especially if one has had training in it and better, experience also. I consider the general threat level of civilian house clearing as considerably lower than house clearing in combat. Sometimes calling 911 is not practical. During a certain period, due to certain political and criminal issues, I cleared the house every time we returned home, before anyone else entered. Calling 911 would get unpopular very quickly.

Sorry to hear you lived under those circumstances, buddy.
I checked for signs of entry before proceeding...I live in a very safe city so I made the call to proceed after seeing no warning signs/suspiciousness. No offense to LEO's here, but I'd prefer not deal with cops unless absolutely necessary.

[Guantes]

Thanks. The circumstances were the result of being a cop.