***! The Front Door is Open

[Ivy Mike]

draw and check weapon
sneak in through an alternate entrance
clear home carefully
yell at wife for leaving door open and get mad at dog sleeping on your bed...again

open a cold one and get back to posting on THR.

You could also burst in the front and run from room to room. Be ready to fire on anyone that shouldn't be there. SWAT style.

At any rate, I'm not going to wait for the police. Too much is at stake.

 

[fjolnirsson]

Enter through front door, calm and unafraid. Go to Kitchen. Shoo dogs away from carcass of intruder. Give dogs milkbones and tell them what good dogs they are for getting the bad guy. Call cops and report derelict van in front of house. Dispose of body on lonely Oregon road.

 

[fjolnirsson]

Call cops and report derelict van in front of house. Dispose of body on lonely Oregon road.

I mean, call cops and report dead intruder.
Sorry. Must have been a problem solver for the mob in a past life.

 

[Owen]

Hmmmm,

I would jump out of the car, and run in the front door, screaming "Yes!! the girl scout cookies are finally here!!!"

 

[W Turner]

I have run into pretty much the same situation, except I knew my wife was at work. I went in and cleared my house. In hindsight, this was not the smartest thing for me to do. I should have called 911 and waited, but....... then again I would have run the risk of having my 50 lb. GSD mix shot when he started barking and showing off his "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE OR ELSE" routine.

*** This is not a flame of LEO's I just realize that this is a very possible scenario in my house.

Now? Well, if the situation were exactly as you described it (insert son for daugher) then I would call 911, describe myself, give the make/model/tag number of the van and enter the house through a little-used back door after peeking inside to get an idea of what is going on.

Smart? Probably not, but I also couldn't just stay outside while someone is raping my wife and making my son watch, either.

W

 

[Bobarino]

my first thought is to call the house. however, if you just talked to the wife/SO/HoneyBunny a few minutes ago, you have the number she called from on your cell phone's caller ID. that should give you some idea as to where she is. call back that number to see if she's there and safe. if it was the house, call it back from outside. no answer, call police and go in. if she's not at home and there is no danger to anyone you love inside, call the police. if i suspect that there is somone i love inside and in danger, i'm not waiting for the police to arrive, i'm going in immediately after calling police, probably with the line open to the 911 operator and the phone in my pocket. house clear, and everything there, cancel the police call. house clear and stuff missing, let the operator know that there is no emergency, but there has been a B&E and robbery. if the operator hears gunshots, well, thats self explanatory.

Bobby

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Happened to me once, when I didn't have a cell phone, and before I had a CCW. Like an idiot, I went into the house and called the police from the kitchen.

DUMB!!!!!!!!!

Correct answer: Go to neighbors' house and call police from there.

As for all the Rambos who want to clear the house themselves, before the police arrive -- what happens when the police do show up, and find an unidentified male creeping around inside the house with a gun in his hand?

If you're very lucky, you may get out of it with just being spreadeagled on the floor for a good long time. That's the BEST you can hope for.

That's if the police are 5 minutes away. If they're 30 minutes away and you live alone, park a safe distance from the house and wait. If you think your wife and/or kids may be home, tell dispatch what you look like and what you're wearing, and that you are entering the house with a handgun drawn. Be sure dispatch has your cell number so they can call you back when the officers arrive, to tell you what to do so the nice policemen won't use you for target practice.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

If I know my wife is OK, i.e. she's over at the neighbors or whatever, I wait outside after calling the cops. If I think she's in danger in the house, I'm going in, and no amount of telling me how dumb that is, is going to stop me.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Kill em all, let God sort them out

I say enter the house doing one of those really cool summersaults like that that cute guy in S.W.A.T.

Then I would loose a volley of shots at anyone who didn't freeze on command. If the wife or kids buy it, it's not my fault, I told them to hold still !!!

Seriously,

Who hasn't come home at one time or another to find things "not right". I usually do a cursory inspection to ensure all is well. If the wife and kiddo are inside, I call and get a sitrep (ain't the world of cellular commubnication great?). If not available, enter ready for anything. My last choice would be to call the cops, except to clean up. A stand off is the last thing I would want for my family, and if I enter and there is a problem, either I can handle it or trade myself for them.

Then I would use my super kung-fu action grip to take em out!

 

[chris in va]

Shoot, last month I came home to find my front door slightly open, dog in back yard wagging his tail. No way no HOW did I go in there gun drawn. Called the cops, they did a 4 man team search and found nothing.

They said I did the right thing.