my first and hopfully last self defense situation!!

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ellswj

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So this morning around 4:00am I come home and sneak in past the dog so I wont wake everyone up ( I'm only 21 and still in school so I live with my parents.) I get up to my room and settle in to go to bed, I start checking my email and such before I go to bed. At around 4:30 am my little sisters Pomeranian just goes bezerk, the only time I ever hear the dog bark like that is when I'm sneaking into the house, so I grab my trusty 870 snd quietly make my way downstairs. As I come to the bottom of the steps I hear someone trying to jimmy my front door, so i barricade myself behind the bar in my kitchen pointing the muzzle at the door. Just then thedoor slowly opens, I illuminate the BG with my surefire forend and yell out to him DON'T MOVE. He puts up his hands and I tell him to lay on his stomach. My dad hears the comotion and comes barreling down the steps with his model 29 and I tell him to call the police. the sheriff shows up with five patrol cars andtake him away. Apparently they think this guy has burglarized 5 homes in my rural community. The police thanked me for a job well done and hualed him away.

Is there anything I couldve done better? I try to practice such scenarios. I'm just glad noone was hurt!
 
I'm only 21 and still in school
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I'd give you an A.

You remained calm ... didn't do anything stupid like shoot through the door.

Most importantly you had a happy ending with nobody getting hurt but the appropriate people getting a ride in a police car.


Only thing that might be less than kosher is if you were drunk at the time (even then it sounds like you handled yourself well) slipping in at 4am usually happens after a night of drinking ;)
 
I am also glad no one was hurt.

Not something you did wrong, but what I think I would try to do in the situation is stand somewhere near the door still under cover and shuck that shotgun as loudly as I could (one of the reasons I use a shotgun for HD) and tell him to leave now. It prevents any confrontation if he leaves, but if he is armed and decides to try and fight it out you have lost the element of surprise. Writing this, I'm not sure if that's what I would do anymore as now he knows you're armed and he may shoot first and ask questions later. This is all hypothetical of course as I have not been nor was I there.

My rule of thumb is if no one in your family got hurt you probably did alright. Helping the police catch him is a plus!

As a side note he continued to try and break in with the dog barking? Amazing he got away with 5 burglaries! :what:

Good work and stay safe!
 
1. GF or out with the buddies, GF = +10

2. Nice job, I say a non-biological alarm would have been better, luckily you were alive and well.

Good to hear you and your family and puppy are ok.

-bix
 
Dun Rong?
Well no not wrong but different, but it wouldnt'a been legal, high road, and many would argue immoral, Like landing a plane, you walked away when it went down so what more could you ask for? Tell us tho, did he whine an sniffle before he did the perp walk thing? Others may harp that a thread like this is worthless without pics! We all love happy endings!
robert
 
Only thing that might be less than kosher is if you were drunk at the time (even then it sounds like you handled yourself well) slipping in at 4am usually happens after a night of drinking
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No, I wasnt drinking. I fell asleep at my GF house and woke up and came home, thats how it went down, wink wink,lol:D
 
The situation as you described it was handled perfectly. Your primary responsibility is to protect your own life and the lives of your family members, which you did. You also did a favor for your neighbors and got him arrested. You did a favor to the criminal and didn't leave any extra openings in his body. ;)
 
I do not think I would have done anything differntly. No one got hurt, and you do not have any legal problems to deal with. Just do the world a favor and testify at his trial if the prosecutor wants you to.
A+
 
Good work, send that one in to the NRA so I can read it again in the front cover.
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+1 ... would love to see that in the Armed Citizen column ... just get a news story or police blotter to corroborate it.


Oh one small thing, in the future remember that kitchen cabinets are concealment NOT cover. ;)
 
Good for you. No one got hurt. You're safe, and the burglar got arrested without a shot fired.


While it might not be macho enough for some of the more bloodthirsty, I can't think of a better outcome. Good job!!!


If it appears in the local paper's arrest blog, save yourself a copy, and send it along to the NRA. If not, write it up and submit it to the NRA and other Armed Citizen articles.


Once again, good job. And I'm glad you're ok.
 
Yeah, why didn't you rack the shotgun?? Noob.
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:eek::banghead::what::cuss::scrutiny::banghead: :fire::cuss::banghead:

Has ANYONE ever seen documentation that the mere racking of a pump shotgun has EVER caused a BG to freeze in fear, faint, surrender while pleading for their life, or otherwise prevented a crime?

Maybe its because I missed my afternoon nap, but this just zapped my nerve today in a way I cannot ignore.

Getting back to the issue at hand. Facts presented are you recognized something out of the ordinary, you prepared yourself adequately, you took action which proved to be both efficient and effective, and you came away without any additional holes in your body. Just guessing here, but you may also have earned the admiration of your family - except possibly for the pomeranian, who probably wanted the BG as a personal snack - and the local law. All in all, you done good!:D

Listen to the stuff folks ^^^ have said. Decide what to add to your repitiore of things you might do next time, as opposed to what you might have done differently this time. "This time" will never repeat itself. "Next time" may happen. Stay prepared, and

stay safe.

skidmark
 
first of all, well done, i should hope that we can all act that cool if we ever need to

as for racking the shotgun, while it does make an unmistakable sound (to someone that knows what a shot gun is), it would give away your position, and not accomplish anything... plus if it were chambered, it would kick out a shell that you might end up needing... so in all, not a bad job at all...
 
The only minor thing I can point out is that you barricaded yourself behind something that gave you concealment but most likely not cover. I could be wrong because I'm not familiar with how the bar you got behind is constructed. But cover trumps concealment IF it's available and there are rounds coming your way.

Other than that relatively minor detail, you did just fine- you handled Problem One (the incident itself) very well, and thereby avoided Problem Two (the aftermath in the courtroom). I'd say two thumbs up, and I too hope you never have to go through anything like that again.

Stay Safe,

lpl/nc
 
You did fine. Definitely get a cooberative story from the local paper, or policia.

Only thing I'd have done different would be to wake my family up (wife and two dogs). It's always good to have them alerted just in case you get shot...

The BG's just lucky that pomeranian didn't unleash, they're small but viscious :)
 
Good work! You kept your head, brought the appropriate weapon and sought concealment and (at least some) cover ahead of time. If the fellow hadn't given up you would have been in a good position to win the fight.

Re. cover--true bulletproof cover is real hard to come by unless you're in a stone house with stone walls inside.
 
The only minor thing I can point out is that you barricaded yourself behind something that gave you concealment but most likely not cover. I could be wrong because I'm not familiar with how the bar you got behind is constructed. But cover trumps concealment IF it's available and there are rounds coming your way.
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Having just finished a renovation of our kitchen, most of our cabinets are wood ,but the bar is stainless steel. Our range is also located in the bar and my mom stacks all my dads cast iron pans inside of it because she says their ugly, she perfers the ulta modern fancy, everything sticks to them pans. Oh yeah, we also have granite for the counter tops although I don't know how much cover that would offer, especially after a couple shots.
 
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