Someone entered my home (apartment) today. The most humbling part of it was that I was not home, but my family was. We were lucky, the intruder was only in the apartment for seconds, and left as soon as he realized it was not empty. My SO called out my name, thinking that the intruder was me coming home early, and intruder promptly ran back out the way he came in, leaving the front door wide open. Before I go into further detail, I'll say a few general things about the experience. Most of what I will say are things that THR members know already, but bear repeating:
It doesn't matter how nice your neighborhood is. Mine is great. Didn't matter.
Police response time: Over 8 minutes. In suburbia. Well-staffed force in a low-crime area. 8 minutes. The police are not able to protect you.
Carry at home. You don't need a CHL to do this. You don't need to make a big deal about it. Just do it quietly and make it a habit. Just as importantly: convince the other responsible adults in your home to do the same.
If the intrusion would have occurred 60 seconds earlier, my SO would have been in the shower. Her closest firearm would have been in another room. Carry everywhere, including the shower. (Fortunately, she had the good sense to arm herself quickly once she realized what was going on).
If my SO would have stopped for groceries after work, she might have walked in on the creep. She and the toddler would have been between a criminal and his way out. Not good.
Yes, we feel 'violated'. The walls and doors that surround you all day, every day, seem like a reasonable boundary between your home life and the rest of the world... until they fail you.
This is the part that disturbs me the most: The door was deadbolted (not locked on the knob, deadbolted). The door was not kicked in. It was opened with either a key or a lockpicking device. My SO said it sounded like I was having trouble with my key (remember, she thought it was me), which happens on occasion. She said it took less than ten seconds of fiddling with it before she heard the door open.
Someone walked up to my front door, in a busy neighborhood, in the middle of the afternoon, stood on my porch, somehow unlocked my door and entered. Our apartment manager says the locks are changed every time someone new moves into a unit. Not sure if I believe that. I think it is most likely that whoever decided to come into our particular apartment (out of hundreds) did so because they knew they had a way in. Obviously, the locks have been changed, and I'm working on a few new security measures.
So, what do you guys think? To me, it doesn't sound like the work of a curious teenager or an aggressive thug. Petty daytime thief? With a key/lockpicking device? Are lockpicking devices really that common among these sorts of thieves? Long ago, I remember hearing about an unscrupulous maintenance man at a complex near mine who sometimes sold spare keys to apartments to supplement his income. Not saying that I believe that this is what happened, but one way or another, it seems as if someone knew that they could get into our place, and it didn't take them much time to do it.
Thoughts?
It doesn't matter how nice your neighborhood is. Mine is great. Didn't matter.
Police response time: Over 8 minutes. In suburbia. Well-staffed force in a low-crime area. 8 minutes. The police are not able to protect you.
Carry at home. You don't need a CHL to do this. You don't need to make a big deal about it. Just do it quietly and make it a habit. Just as importantly: convince the other responsible adults in your home to do the same.
If the intrusion would have occurred 60 seconds earlier, my SO would have been in the shower. Her closest firearm would have been in another room. Carry everywhere, including the shower. (Fortunately, she had the good sense to arm herself quickly once she realized what was going on).
If my SO would have stopped for groceries after work, she might have walked in on the creep. She and the toddler would have been between a criminal and his way out. Not good.
Yes, we feel 'violated'. The walls and doors that surround you all day, every day, seem like a reasonable boundary between your home life and the rest of the world... until they fail you.
This is the part that disturbs me the most: The door was deadbolted (not locked on the knob, deadbolted). The door was not kicked in. It was opened with either a key or a lockpicking device. My SO said it sounded like I was having trouble with my key (remember, she thought it was me), which happens on occasion. She said it took less than ten seconds of fiddling with it before she heard the door open.
Someone walked up to my front door, in a busy neighborhood, in the middle of the afternoon, stood on my porch, somehow unlocked my door and entered. Our apartment manager says the locks are changed every time someone new moves into a unit. Not sure if I believe that. I think it is most likely that whoever decided to come into our particular apartment (out of hundreds) did so because they knew they had a way in. Obviously, the locks have been changed, and I'm working on a few new security measures.
So, what do you guys think? To me, it doesn't sound like the work of a curious teenager or an aggressive thug. Petty daytime thief? With a key/lockpicking device? Are lockpicking devices really that common among these sorts of thieves? Long ago, I remember hearing about an unscrupulous maintenance man at a complex near mine who sometimes sold spare keys to apartments to supplement his income. Not saying that I believe that this is what happened, but one way or another, it seems as if someone knew that they could get into our place, and it didn't take them much time to do it.
Thoughts?