***CASE RESOLVED*** SEE FOURTH POST***
Soooo...I was sitting at the kitchen computer tonight...surfing some High Road and generally just relaxing when the doorbell rings. As a matter of policy I don' t answer the door when the kids are home because it's usually one of their friends coming over to play. This time though my son came to me and said "hey dad...can you get the door because I don't know who it is."
My first thought was "awesome...my kids DO listen to me!" Before I can get up to go to the door the bell rings again...hmmm...impatient mofo...starting to piss me off.
I open the door and there stands a guy who could be a kid of 16 yrs old or a man of 25...I just can't tell. He's a little stocky and 5'7 to 5'9. He has four hardcover books in his left hand and a backpack (the sack-type that you get at the footwear store...a pouch with rope straps). I figure "Wow...the Jehovas witnesses are pushing hardcovers now...". I'm a little impatient to begin with because I'm on hold with S&W service dept. because they sent me the wrong front sight for my Model 29 .44 mag (not kidding you...how ironic that my house gets cased while I'm ordering parts for one of my 44 mags that I shoot all the time).
So I ask him what he wants...he immediately starts to put on an act of being nervous and says "ohh...umm..yeah...my parents would be so mad at me for talking to strangers...but umm...can I get a drink of water." My shade-o-meter pegged to the red line. A jehovas witness I wouldn't have questioned...but i live on a dead end cove with ZERO pedestrian access. You could easier get lost and end up on the doorstep of Fort Knox than my doorstep. I stare at him (while still on hold with S&W) for maybe 20 seconds. I'm trying to decide :
a - why this guy is so full of it
b - if he tries to push his way in do I hang up or try to keep my place in line
customer service
c - what if he is just lost and thirsty
Ultimately I figure I'll give him a drink to satisfy my basic requirement for human decency, hang up with S&W, and shoot him with something other than my Model 29 if he tries to break in.
I tell him to wait on the front porch, shut and lock the door, have my son get a gatorade, grab my Glock 36 (I basically stayed at the front door the whole time...the Glock was right there).
I opened the door, handed the kid the gatorade and figured I'd explore this a little more.
I asked him "where are you coming from?"
He replies "just a few streets over."
I inquire further "where are you going?"
He says "oh I know the way."
Then he starts walking down my driveway. My house sits directly at the end of the street...the view from my front porch is a 150 yard site line down the middle of the road to the stop sign at the other end.
When he gets halfway down the driveway he turns around and looks back at my door. Then maybe every 30 yards or so he turns around and looks back at my house.
Suspicious as hell I call the police non-emergency line and file a suspicious persons report. I then got in my truck and figured I'd trail the guy by a few hundred yards for a while to see what he is up to.
He turns right off my street, then left down a fairly busy road, then left again on a side street where my kids go to school. I know the neighborhood like the back of my hand obviously and I'm usually in front of him to see him hit the intersections and then I adjust my position...I'm never within 200 yards of him. He then approaches the elementary school and tries all the doors. He can't get in so he wanders off toward the back of the school.
I came back to the house and met the police to finish up the report.
I told the police that it could be a total freak accident that he showed up on my doorstep looking for water...although in the 10 years I've lived here nothing like that has happened to me or any of my neighbors.
My first thought was that this was going to be your normal Memphis break-in. They ring the front door bell and if nobody answers they kick in your back door and steal a bunch of your stuff. I could be wrong...but that whole incident was really, really shady.
The good news is that the kids know not to answer the door if they don't know the person. The other good news is that I get a chance to tighten up my procedures in light of this without actually having to have a break-in take place.
Soooo...I was sitting at the kitchen computer tonight...surfing some High Road and generally just relaxing when the doorbell rings. As a matter of policy I don' t answer the door when the kids are home because it's usually one of their friends coming over to play. This time though my son came to me and said "hey dad...can you get the door because I don't know who it is."
My first thought was "awesome...my kids DO listen to me!" Before I can get up to go to the door the bell rings again...hmmm...impatient mofo...starting to piss me off.
I open the door and there stands a guy who could be a kid of 16 yrs old or a man of 25...I just can't tell. He's a little stocky and 5'7 to 5'9. He has four hardcover books in his left hand and a backpack (the sack-type that you get at the footwear store...a pouch with rope straps). I figure "Wow...the Jehovas witnesses are pushing hardcovers now...". I'm a little impatient to begin with because I'm on hold with S&W service dept. because they sent me the wrong front sight for my Model 29 .44 mag (not kidding you...how ironic that my house gets cased while I'm ordering parts for one of my 44 mags that I shoot all the time).
So I ask him what he wants...he immediately starts to put on an act of being nervous and says "ohh...umm..yeah...my parents would be so mad at me for talking to strangers...but umm...can I get a drink of water." My shade-o-meter pegged to the red line. A jehovas witness I wouldn't have questioned...but i live on a dead end cove with ZERO pedestrian access. You could easier get lost and end up on the doorstep of Fort Knox than my doorstep. I stare at him (while still on hold with S&W) for maybe 20 seconds. I'm trying to decide :
a - why this guy is so full of it
b - if he tries to push his way in do I hang up or try to keep my place in line
customer service
c - what if he is just lost and thirsty
Ultimately I figure I'll give him a drink to satisfy my basic requirement for human decency, hang up with S&W, and shoot him with something other than my Model 29 if he tries to break in.
I tell him to wait on the front porch, shut and lock the door, have my son get a gatorade, grab my Glock 36 (I basically stayed at the front door the whole time...the Glock was right there).
I opened the door, handed the kid the gatorade and figured I'd explore this a little more.
I asked him "where are you coming from?"
He replies "just a few streets over."
I inquire further "where are you going?"
He says "oh I know the way."
Then he starts walking down my driveway. My house sits directly at the end of the street...the view from my front porch is a 150 yard site line down the middle of the road to the stop sign at the other end.
When he gets halfway down the driveway he turns around and looks back at my door. Then maybe every 30 yards or so he turns around and looks back at my house.
Suspicious as hell I call the police non-emergency line and file a suspicious persons report. I then got in my truck and figured I'd trail the guy by a few hundred yards for a while to see what he is up to.
He turns right off my street, then left down a fairly busy road, then left again on a side street where my kids go to school. I know the neighborhood like the back of my hand obviously and I'm usually in front of him to see him hit the intersections and then I adjust my position...I'm never within 200 yards of him. He then approaches the elementary school and tries all the doors. He can't get in so he wanders off toward the back of the school.
I came back to the house and met the police to finish up the report.
I told the police that it could be a total freak accident that he showed up on my doorstep looking for water...although in the 10 years I've lived here nothing like that has happened to me or any of my neighbors.
My first thought was that this was going to be your normal Memphis break-in. They ring the front door bell and if nobody answers they kick in your back door and steal a bunch of your stuff. I could be wrong...but that whole incident was really, really shady.
The good news is that the kids know not to answer the door if they don't know the person. The other good news is that I get a chance to tighten up my procedures in light of this without actually having to have a break-in take place.
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