After reading some of the stories here I remembered that I had one that may qualify as interesting. Sorry if it is long.
This happened a few years back. My family lived in a nice neighborhood in a nice community. We knew our neighbors as acquaintances- you know, “hey, how you doing?” Our neighbors just put their house up for sale and the husband travelled a lot. One day my wife was talking to the neighbor wife and the neighbor mentioned a strange guy that came and looked at the house. Obviously she had a bad feeling to mention this to my wife. In hindsight she also mentioned that he noticed her husband’s travel bags as he was preparing to leave on a trip. Also in hindsight my wife heard some noise in the tree line behind our fence on night. You can see where this is going. The neighbor called the cops and they said a car matching his was parked on the cul-de-sac behind our houses one night. The cops said to call them if the car is in the neighborhood again. This freaked out the neighbor and understandably so.
So a few days after the stranger looked at my neighbor’s house the phone rang around 8pm. My wife answered the phone and the neighbor was frantic saying that the guy was knocking on her door. Her husband was out of town and she was alone with her 12 year old daughter. My wife yelled at me and I made a quick decision to do something. I wasn’t completely convinced the guy was a threat but she was. I grabbed my wife’s .38, which was the only gun I had at the time that would fit in my pocket. I walked out the front door and started walking down the sidewalk. The stranger saw me, left the neighbors door and started walking to his car parked on the street, which was at the corner of my lot and the neighbors.
The stranger was a normal looking blond guy, probably mid-thirties, dressed respectably in jeans and a button up shirt. I say, “Can I help you?” and he immediately starts the friendly BS. He wanted to look at the house next door- you know, at night, with no realtor. Meanwhile, my wife is calling the police. Immediately I can tell this guy is a professional liar. I can just tell. So the entire time I have my hand on my gun in my pocket. I can see his hands so I’m not too worried. I swear I talk to this guy for 15 minutes waiting on the cops. Finally I say goodbye and turn back to my house, while keeping an eye on him.
The guy gets in his car and drives about 200 yards down the street. Immediately a cop car comes out of no where and pulls him over. Then two more cop cars pull up. All I hear is “get out of the car”, then squealing tires. I’m like, holy crap. I can hear them chasing him out of the neighborhood.
Thirty minutes later a cop comes to my house and takes a statement. I told him what happened but never mentioned my gun. He asked, “So you just went out there and confronted him?” Maybe he knew I had a gun, maybe not. Apparently the cops chased him 20 miles until he wrecked his car. It turns out this guy was a career criminal and the Feds came to pick him up the next day, which I thought was odd. I’m not sure what the deal was but he definitely was not buying a house. I hate to think what would have happened if she had opened the door. A few days later the husband came over and thanked me profusely.
I think back and wonder if I should have done something differently and I don’t think so. If he had pulled a gun I would have killed him for sure. I wasn’t sure he was a threat until I met him, then I knew something wasn’t right. Also, I had to go confront him- there really wasn’t a choice since the neighbor was so scared. But you never know who you are dealing with.
This happened a few years back. My family lived in a nice neighborhood in a nice community. We knew our neighbors as acquaintances- you know, “hey, how you doing?” Our neighbors just put their house up for sale and the husband travelled a lot. One day my wife was talking to the neighbor wife and the neighbor mentioned a strange guy that came and looked at the house. Obviously she had a bad feeling to mention this to my wife. In hindsight she also mentioned that he noticed her husband’s travel bags as he was preparing to leave on a trip. Also in hindsight my wife heard some noise in the tree line behind our fence on night. You can see where this is going. The neighbor called the cops and they said a car matching his was parked on the cul-de-sac behind our houses one night. The cops said to call them if the car is in the neighborhood again. This freaked out the neighbor and understandably so.
So a few days after the stranger looked at my neighbor’s house the phone rang around 8pm. My wife answered the phone and the neighbor was frantic saying that the guy was knocking on her door. Her husband was out of town and she was alone with her 12 year old daughter. My wife yelled at me and I made a quick decision to do something. I wasn’t completely convinced the guy was a threat but she was. I grabbed my wife’s .38, which was the only gun I had at the time that would fit in my pocket. I walked out the front door and started walking down the sidewalk. The stranger saw me, left the neighbors door and started walking to his car parked on the street, which was at the corner of my lot and the neighbors.
The stranger was a normal looking blond guy, probably mid-thirties, dressed respectably in jeans and a button up shirt. I say, “Can I help you?” and he immediately starts the friendly BS. He wanted to look at the house next door- you know, at night, with no realtor. Meanwhile, my wife is calling the police. Immediately I can tell this guy is a professional liar. I can just tell. So the entire time I have my hand on my gun in my pocket. I can see his hands so I’m not too worried. I swear I talk to this guy for 15 minutes waiting on the cops. Finally I say goodbye and turn back to my house, while keeping an eye on him.
The guy gets in his car and drives about 200 yards down the street. Immediately a cop car comes out of no where and pulls him over. Then two more cop cars pull up. All I hear is “get out of the car”, then squealing tires. I’m like, holy crap. I can hear them chasing him out of the neighborhood.
Thirty minutes later a cop comes to my house and takes a statement. I told him what happened but never mentioned my gun. He asked, “So you just went out there and confronted him?” Maybe he knew I had a gun, maybe not. Apparently the cops chased him 20 miles until he wrecked his car. It turns out this guy was a career criminal and the Feds came to pick him up the next day, which I thought was odd. I’m not sure what the deal was but he definitely was not buying a house. I hate to think what would have happened if she had opened the door. A few days later the husband came over and thanked me profusely.
I think back and wonder if I should have done something differently and I don’t think so. If he had pulled a gun I would have killed him for sure. I wasn’t sure he was a threat until I met him, then I knew something wasn’t right. Also, I had to go confront him- there really wasn’t a choice since the neighbor was so scared. But you never know who you are dealing with.
