Best HOME defence item? Telephone!

[BoneDigger]

Just a thought... With most people now going to cordless phones there is a chance that your phone may be dead when you need it most. I would put a telephone at the top of the list when it comes to home defense. But, it may be the last thing we think of when we consider defense of our property. We all have nice guns and $200 flashlights. So, how much is your telephone worth? Can you depend on it to be charged and work when you need it most?

Lets say a BG breaks into your house in the middle sof the night. I would think that most of us would grab a gun, tell the wife to call 911, and then make sure the kids are safe, etc. and perhaps confront the BG. If your phone is in the kitchen or in another room, you might not have the option of getting to it in an emergency.

Just something to think about...

Todd

 

[Dionysusigma]

Another reason to run a landline jack into a walk-in closet. And/or having a cell phone.

Best HD item? It's up there. Not the best (which is living on a deserted island in the South Pacific ), but definately important.

 

[calzoom]

If there is trouble in my house that damn phone is going to be pretty far down the list of what needs to be done, NOW!

I've never trusted phones and never will. First thing out during Storm, Earthquakes, Tornados. You guessed it. So you learn to take care of business and then call the cops or fire!

 

[ZeSpectre]

A phone is a tool that can be used to call for assistance not a "home defense item".

Calling for assistance is great, but even if you have the time to do so during an event, you still have the response time to deal with (even assuming that there is no SNAFU that looses your call or sends the response to the wrong location).

Thinking of the phone as somehow "defending" or "protecting" you gets into the same high-risk mentality that gets a number of hikers killed every year as well.

 

[pax]

Two stories.

One, I spent part of the evening yesterday talking to a woman about a home invasion she experienced a little over a year ago. She was actually on the phone with 911 when the intruder found her and beat her senseless. The whole encounter was captured on the 911 tape, but the attacker did not leave until he heard sirens approaching.

Two, in today's paper there's an article about a robbery which happened last night at one of the local restaurants. The woman who was closing up shop was accosted in the parking lot, forced to re open the store, and then locked into a walk in freezer before the assailant left the building. She is alive this morning only because she had a cell phone in her pocket, and was able to call for help before she froze to death.

Draw your own conclusions.

pax

 

[Lonestar.45]

I consider a phone nothing more than a "call the EMS/coroner because there's a lot of blood here" item. Hopefully I'll be the one using it making the call, but if not, whoever finds me will want to.

 

[scout26]

Best Home Defense Item ???

A plan, a brain, and the will to survive....

 

[The Deer Hunter]

My uncle has all his phonelines in electrical conduit, so it would be pretty hard to cut it i guess.

 

[Dave in PA]

How high up the pole is it at the street? One can cut a phone line in less than a minute with an extension ladder and a pair of pliers. But, then, most BG aren't going to go through that much trouble...they'll wait until you leave unless you are what they are after.

 

[hso]

I think the point he's making is don't forget to have a phone in an accessable part of the house.

 

[Technosavant]

I might suggest one of the new multi-handset cordless phones. You can place a handset/charger unit anywhere there happens to be an electrical outlet. All of them use the same base unit, so you only need one phone jack.

Another feature to look for would be a battery backup in the base station. This is becoming rather rare, but if you have it, a rechargeable battery in the base keeps it operating if the power goes out. I have had phones where the spare rechargeable battery in the base could be transferred to the handset if that battery was low, and while in the base, it could power the base. The phone I have now is a multi-handset job with a slot in the base for a pair of rechargeable AAs. When out power went out Saturday night, our phone kept going. We are also on Vonage internet telephone service, so I keep our wireless router, cable modem, and telephone adapter plugged into a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). With my notebook computer, I was able to check things online and my wife was able to call her mother while nothing else in the place worked. I figure we'd have about 5-6 hours of communication capability on that UPS.

Of course, nothing can beat a $4 basic corded phone when push comes to shove.

 

[EricTheBarbarian]

If someones broke into my home and I only have a few seconds the first thing I am going to do isnt call 911. id be dead by the time they got there anyways. Its going to be reaching for the 12 ga with 00 buckshot or the .45. I will be calling 911 to send an ambulance and police after the fact. The best way is prevention of ever having them get in. Most intruders look for easy targets and will pass yours up if its too hard to get into. Good dead bolts on your doors and none of those cheap locks you can jimmy with a credit card. I know bars on the window look ugly but in this nieghborhood you could almost call them a necessity. You can also get glass break sensors if you want to put in an alarm system. Just a yard marker in the lawn saying you have a security system is alot of times enough to deter some one anyways, because they never know. You know, being able to get service with cingular isnt something Id want to bet my life on either

 

[berettashotgun]

Every item that I can use is a help, and I'm going to use everything I can get my hnds on, butI only have 2 hands- so my shotgun is controllable.

 

[BoneDigger]

telephone

Good points in this discussion. My main point is that you should always have a phone handy and where you can reach it. In the original post, I mentioned that I would go to interupt the intruder, while my wife calls 911. I'm not saying that you should stay on the phone talking, while the intruder is in the house.

If you have RELIABLE coverage in your area, then a cell phone is a good bet as well.

Also, consider that your wife (or husband) may also request an ambulance, since it's obvious that SOMEBODY is about to be shot...

Also, my topic heading was just an attention getter. I don't think I would call it THE MOST IMPORTANT tool, but it definately is something you should consider.

Todd

 

[The-Fly]

In my house, the phone is used to request the clean up crew after invading scumbag(s) has been introduced to my 870

My primary phone is a cell phone anyways, so I dont worry about the lines being cut, etc.

 

[sithanas]

I work at RadioShack, and our better multi-handset units keep a spare battery charged in the base for both spare handset use and as battery backup in case of power failure.

Spare batteries, just like spare magazines, should be an essential part of your home defense.

 

[Plink]

I had many of the same worries when it came to emergency communication. My solution is that we have an extension to our house phone in the bedroom, but we also charge our cell phones in there too. I keep a cheapo tactical vest hanging from the back of a chair next to my side of the bed. In it is my gun, flashlight and cell phone charging in a pocket with a hole in the bottom. I have wrapped the charger cord around the chair so I can grab the vest if needed and it unplugs the phone. I can also reach over to grab the gun or flashlight out of the vest if I don't have time to put it on. This has turned out to be a very workable solution, as I've grabbed the vest a few times to investigate strange noises in the night. Between both cell phones and the house phone, one or both of us will be able to get a call out. Communication is very important!

 

[1911Tuner]

Best HD

Four big male dogs roaming the house. I don't even bother to lock the doors some nights...

 

[TallPine]

The fastest response that we could reasonably expect from the sheriff is 30 to 45 minutes. If somebody is breaking in, using the phone is probably going to be the last thing on my mind. Although getting the incident on a 911 tape (don't know if they even do that in our little county) might be useful for legal reasons after the fact.

We might get lucky and the HP might be somewhere near our road turn-off which would still put the officer at least 10 miles away.

Cell phones don't work at our house

 

[Low-Sci]

There's no argument being made here suggesting a phone should replace your firearms, so there's no sense combating that argument.

What is most definately true is that a phone is an invaluable device. Its so useful that you should rarely or never be without one. It means you can contact people in an emergency, or if someone else is having an emergency, they can contact you. You'll always be able to get help, even if the help isn't immediate. Maybe the help you need isn't for an immediate problem as imminent as an intruder.

All that said, my telephone still plays an irreversibly important role, even in an immediate, life-threatening emergency. Here's why.

If I know someone is breaking in, of course I'm going to get a gun ready first. Most times I won't be alone in my house however, so if I've got the gun ready, there's no reason another member of the family shouldn't be on the phone with the police from a safe location. Even if we're all sitting there in the living room and an intruder breaks in and starts beating on me, someone else should be on the phone with 911.

Look at it like this: you'll be calling them either way. If they run away, you're going to call the cops to file a report. If you shoot the intruder, you'll be calling the cops. If the intruder wins, you better pray that someone else had the foresight to call the cops. There's no garauntee that you'll win the fight, no matter who you are. Maybe that phone call saves your life after you lose.

Get professionals on the way as soon as possible. If you've got someone there with you, then you arm yourself while they hide with a phone, and you both tuck in. Maybe you won't have time to make a phone call but if you're with someone and you have time to arm, the other person has time to grab the phone.

 

[Glockfan.45]

A cell phone is always on my night stand. It will work in a power outage and even in the rare case where the BG cuts the line. A G21 and 870 are close at hand and one big dog sleeps downstairs. If the dog goes nuts in the middle of the night due to somebody being in there that shouldnt be the wife grabs the 21 and the phone. I will grab the 870 take a quick peek in the kids room to be sure they are not roaming around downstairs before taking a defensive position at the top of the stairs. After that I am not going downstairs and nothing is comming up.

 

[jeep-2]

Have a couple entrance or hall lights on a motion detector and alarm, nothing scares burglars more than lights, noise and a loud dog growling.
if the power is out, someone is usually up anyway and then you're down to the dog, and if she is like my yellow lab, you're in grood hands,paws.

 

[tepin]

i have not had a land-line for over 4 years which tells you what i think of phones. you cannot count on anyone else to take care of things for you i.e. 911 and the cops. taking care of immediate needs should come first and that usually means security and the hardware to stop threats. good luck

 

[boerseun]

I set up little rituals to make sure I remember everything.
When I get home from work, I walk through the kitchen. Keys and wallet go on top of the fridge and then on my way to the closet to change, I pass by the dresser and put the cell on the charger. It is always charged and working.
As for best HD weapon? My mosin nagant M44 with or without bayo. If I don't shoot him, I'll stab him, if I don't stab him, I'll club him. It hangs on my wall as a "wall hanger". No-one knows that the bandolier actually has 10 5 round stripper clips with light ball ammo in
It looks really old and with the bayo extended, no-one takes it seriously.

Other than that, Henkel knives or baseball bat.

 

[Baba Louie]

I gotta agree w/ Tuner. One or more happy K9's on perimeter patrol and one or two indoors... maybe a goose or two (they can be pretty snippy at times)

Wichita's BTK made a habit of cutting phone lines (pre cell phone days tho) prior to his acts of evil (he installed alarm systems for awhile I understand... that's reassuring as hell, eh?)

Dogs, a good door/frame system, some type of implement capable of dispensing immediate negation of lethal force AND a cell phone... now you're talking layers of SD.

Oh yeah, and Attitude.