Major home security fail tonight...
Warbirds
Member Posts: 16,943 ✭✭✭✭
Major security lesson learned- sharing.
I am a guy that has repeatedly said security should be a “layered defense”.
As a result of trying to walk the talk I live in an upscale suburb (1st layer), and my neighborhood is a fairly upscale neighborhood but not the. Most expensive, & off the beaten path (2nd layer) & a gated community (3rd layer) and as it happens I am towards the back of the neighborhood sort of out of the way for most of the neighbors (5th layer).
I also have video cameras that are designed to be obvious so as their presence is a deterrent (6th layer), and then of course a door with a deadbolt (7th layer) and you really aren’t secure in your home without a dog (8th layer). Of course Im armed with a plan (9th layer), and the police station is only a few minutes away (10th layer).
You can’t get much more secure than that, right! ?!?!
Now onto my evening.
A family friend has had a rough go the last few weeks, I won’t bore y’all with details but he has had his * kicked personally and professionally much more than he deserves the last month straight.
As a result I invited his family over for dinner to unwind a bit. We were have a really nice evening adults outback and kids all hanging out upstairs.
AND THEN THE LAYERS BROKE DOWN.
It sounded like something was wrong with the music, instead of music it was talking and my friends wife exclaimed “there is a man in your house!”
As I stand up and turn towards my living room much to my surprise there is a man standing in the middle of my house. I charge towards him and the distance is maybe 15-18 feet from where I am out back to where he is in the middle of my living room.
As I close on the man, it gets weird. He is tiny. Maybe 5-1 or 5-2” tall. He is dressed very nice. Slacks and a pink button down shirt with a sport coat, and perhaps most importantly he is old.
I probably had 10 inches in height, 75lbs and and 25 years on this guy. I was able to figure out he was lost, not a threat and thankfully it didn’t escalate beyond that.
The guy was headed to a dinner party 2 houses down. He was lost and quite embarrassed.
My dog, never even barked. Dang!
Comments
You need a new dog, and find 'layer # 4'. Glad it didn't go down ugly.
I agree with montanajoe. My two Bullmastiffs were as laid back as you can get. Once, when I was still in the far NW side of Indy decades ago, I had two guys that were looking to buy an Oldsmobile I had for sale, after driving it and returning they tried to walk into my living room. My dogs were pi**ed from them interrupting their nap and jumped up, took one leap , and hit my aluminum storm door. I never saw the guys again. Were they going to rob me - I don't know. Maybe they were just dumb. I had to replace the door but it could have cost me a lot more.
Hope your friends luck picks up, and your infiltrator enjoyed his dinner.
Damn, you showed remarkable self restraint. It would have happened far different up here on my mountain.
My neighbor uphill is a contractor to the military and spends months on end in the sandbox. When he's home he sits in his front room with the lights off "watching". I would have had a signal message someone was approaching, and the guy wouldn't have made it to my actual door.
When the police are at least 30 minutes away, you work out these "agreements" with your neighbors. Beers, burgers and touching base a couple times a year on the back deck does remarkable things for area safety.
"Maybe they were just dumb. I had to replace the door but it could have cost me a lot more."
Especially if the dogs had broken through the door and mauled someone outside. I have walked right up to numerous houses where the resident THOUGHT their oh so tough watch dog was fool proof. The universal comment has been "How did you get on the porch without getting dog bit?".
Obviously, several "layers" of the OP's security weren't engaged: video was not observed or disregarded, deadbolt obviously wasn't engaged, plan must have been to run around like hair was afire, and none of the adults seemed to be paying attention. As for the police being "a few minutes away", that was a worthless consideration.
We live far off the right road and neighbors are not real close so any time I go out to what I call the backyard I always lock the front door so that something like that does not happen.
I figure if someone wants me they can go around back to get me.
Good on you to recognize the perceived threat as a not so much. Yes, I could be wrong but you sized up the situation like a person should in a couple split nano seconds. I just had a similar experience that I might share in a couple days. Glad all went well.
Using that one 'layer' called a deadbolt would have left you with no story to tell. My doors are locked day and night, not because I live in a bad place, just because I know things can happen no matter where you live.
You might add the 11th and 12th layer which is the left and right fist. I’m pretty decrepit but I think one of those would handle most old midgets that I encounter.
No matter how much you prepare.......Chit Happens
Reminds me of an incident last summer...Was working in my shop on an AR build...Smoking a cheap cigar I raised one door in front of my truck about 2' and kept the walk in door open for draft...Got pizzed during the build and decided to take a break...
About 45min later I stepped into the shop and was immediately taking fire from behind a "Shop Smith" between me and my truck...My brain said suppressed .22lr...but I am not hit anywhere...I stepped out of the door as to not be silhouetted and drew my my CC Kimber 45...(which I didn't have)...in a good tactical stance...I reached over to the bench and grabbed another 45...I am still not computing what was going on...I am not getting hit but I can still see movement and the shots keep going!!!...As I approach the shop smith...she tries to jump at me over the equipment but makes eye contact and decides to reverse course almost taking the mirror off my truck...As I stepped towards her she is breast stroking under the 2' of door in front of my truck... That freaking dear scared the crap out of me...Must have been laying on the cool concrete floor...I went back in the house and took a good slug of D.E.W. and a beer and called quits for the day...(after closing and locking the shop)...
Combat Vet VN
D.A.V Life Member
Lock your doors???
Maybe this should be layer #4
Yeah Ricci, watza lock?
Many years ago I was in the living room and had a revolver apart on the coffee table for cleaning. It was a warm day so I had the inside door open, but locked the screen door. I left the room to get something & on my return, I heard someone trying to open the screen door. It was a black male teenager with a clip board. My guess is that he had been going door to door trying to sell something & saw an opportunity. Well, he could run a lot faster then me and dissappeared.
Unless I'm near by, I lock the door. If I leave the slider open for air, I put a HF driveway allert on the screened opening as a precaution.
Get some Guinea fowl. They’ll let you know when someone comes around and your homeowners association will love you.
Hah, this reminds me of the gold mine. My brother-in-law is a world class competitor in combat shooting, been all over the world with his pew-pew making noise. It had been raining hard so the river level was way up and we couldn't dredge. He figured it was a good time to clean his gun. So he had it apart on the table, leaning back against the wall, window open right behind him, scrubbing at some tiny speck of dirt. He started sniffing the air looking around cause something stunk BAD, then turned to look over his shoulder and there was the biggest brown bear you ever saw with his head just coming through the window, sniffing the air for food, maybe a foot away from him.
It immediately turned into a Keystone Kops cartoon, he screams like a little girl, parts fly up in the air, he's all hands and elbows, the table turns over, parts go flying, he's scrambling all over the floor putting his gun together, I'm pissing myself laughing, and within a minute he finds all the pieces, and LEAPS to his feet in the combat stance, gun leveled at ... nothing. The bear had got bored and wandered off.
Situational awareness, folks. That wins the day.
"About 45min later I stepped into the shop and was immediately taking fire from behind a "Shop Smith" between me and my truck...My brain said suppressed .22lr...but I am not hit anywhere...I stepped out of the door as to not be silhouetted and drew my my CC Kimber 45...(which I didn't have)...in a good tactical stance...I reached over to the bench and grabbed another 45...I am still not computing what was going on...I am not getting hit but I can still see movement and the shots keep going!!!...As I approach the shop smith...she tries to jump at me over the equipment but makes eye contact and decides to reverse course almost taking the mirror off my truck...As I stepped towards her she is breast stroking under the 2' of door in front of my truck... That freaking dear scared the crap out of me...Must have been laying on the cool concrete floor...I went back in the house and took a good slug of D.E.W. and a beer and called quits for the day...(after closing and locking the shop)..."
I don't understand. A "shop smith" was shooting a .22 at you? What is a shop smith?
Jim, that was at my parents house. My first house sat on a few acres & I had a flock of geese. Not only could you not sneek in, but they attacked everyone, including me on occassion.
... well the obvious takeaway is the cameras are mounted too high