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Wife takes my AR-15!

hamourkiller

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Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
37
Location
, Texas, USA
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Last year we had security cameras installed around the perimitter of our house, the man who did the work left a bag of tools. He calls and sets up a 5PM or so appointment to pick them up.

5PM comes around and he is a "No Show". Well about 10:30PM my 13yr old son notices a stranger walking up the drive way and acting "Sneaky" Looking at the house in a crouched position. He yells for Mama (I was out of town working) and they see him sneaking around the back of the house.

The wife picks up and charges my AR-15 shorty, while getting the two children behind her. She gets my son to call 911 while she keeps an eye on this guy through the cameras. He eventually gets to the front door and goes to his hands and knees to peek in the window by the door, then stands up and rattles the door knob! Then turns and leaves.

Next door neighbor and the sherrif meet him at end of road and find out he was "Looking for his friends tools" They send him packing with emphasis on not coming back!

I dont know how she kept from shooting this punk when he rattled that front door knob. She just felt in control with the rifle and her ability to see him at all times. Neither of us believe he was there for the tools.

The cameras helped but that rifle and her practice with it gave her confidence to stand safe and await developments. She had already decided to fire when he started forcing a door or window but thank Godhe went away.

We now have a deadly sounding bisquit eating dog sleeping on the porch.

The big problem is My AR-15 turned into Her AR-15!

PS: She also confiscated my ColtCombat Elite 45!

The only thing I thought she could have done better was to arm my son with the 870 riot gun to cover her back side. He has been shooting since he was 6 and killed several deer. She still sees him as her baby (6' 275 LB Baby!). All in all I was proud of her and the children for acting well under such a stressful situation.

I pray this is as close as we ever come to defending ourselves but you can never tell.

Hank
 

hamourkiller

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, Texas, USA
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The neighbor and the Sherrif spent quitesome timewith him at the end of our County Road. I dont think he will be back. Yet I had the same question.

Our Sherrif dept has a kind of you take care of it attitude. Once called about a bunch of stray dogs dropped off by people. I wanted animal control out to fix the problem. The lady dispatcher asked "Do you have a shot gun?" then said goodby. Needless to say the problems went to the burn pile.
 

HankT

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hamourkiller wrote:
The neighbor and the Sherrif spent quitesome timewith him at the end of our County Road. I dont think he will be back. Yet I had the same question.

Did the original workman ever come back for his tools? Did he acknowledge sending some guy to pick them up for him?

Looks like the intrusion was handled very well by the wife.
 

hamourkiller

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Messages
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Location
, Texas, USA
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HankT wrote:
hamourkiller wrote:
The neighbor and the Sherrif spent quitesome timewith him at the end of our County Road. I dont think he will be back. Yet I had the same question.

Did the original workman ever come back for his tools? Did he acknowledge sending some guy to pick them up for him?

Looks like the intrusion was handled very well by the wife.

The owner of the firm came and picked up his contractors tools and seemed very uneasy about discussing things. I suspect he had a problem with liability and wanted the incident over with. We never saw them again.

The dog and cameras make a pretty good system.
 

HankT

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hamourkiller wrote:
HankT wrote:

Did the original workman ever come back for his tools? Did he acknowledge sending some guy to pick them up for him?

The owner of the firm came and picked up his contractors tools and seemed very uneasy about discussing things. I suspect he had a problem with liability and wanted the incident over with. We never saw them again.

That sounds like the intruder was somehow involved with the contractor, then. How else would the intruder know about the tools?

I think you had the owner over a barrel on this one. His contractor and the guy who showed up at your house are obviously connected. And the owner was responsible for at least one of those guys.

hamourkiller wrote:
The dog and cameras make a pretty good system.
Yes, that sounds sweet.
 

AbNo

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Jun 8, 2007
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Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
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hamourkiller wrote:
Last year we had security cameras installed around the perimitter of our house, the man who did the work left a bag of tools. He calls and sets up a 5PM or so appointment to pick them up.

5PM comes around and he is a "No Show". Well about 10:30PM my 13yr old son notices a stranger walking up the drive way and acting "Sneaky" Looking at the house in a crouched position. He yells for Mama (I was out of town working) and they see him sneaking around the back of the house.

The wife picks up and charges my AR-15 shorty, while getting the two children behind her. She gets my son to call 911 while she keeps an eye on this guy through the cameras. He eventually gets to the front door and goes to his hands and knees to peek in the window by the door, then stands up and rattles the door knob! Then turns and leaves.

Next door neighbor and the sherrif meet him at end of road and find out he was "Looking for his friends tools" They send him packing with emphasis on not coming back!

I dont know how she kept from shooting this punk when he rattled that front door knob. She just felt in control with the rifle and her ability to see him at all times. Neither of us believe he was there for the tools.

The cameras helped but that rifle and her practice with it gave her confidence to stand safe and await developments. She had already decided to fire when he started forcing a door or window but thank God he went away.

We now have a deadly sounding bisquit eating dog sleeping on the porch.

The big problem is My AR-15 turned into Her AR-15!

PS: She also confiscated my Colt Combat Elite 45!

The only thing I thought she could have done better was to arm my son with the 870 riot gun to cover her back side. He has been shooting since he was 6 and killed several deer. She still sees him as her baby (6'  275 LB Baby!). All in all I was proud of her and the children for acting well under such a stressful situation.

I pray this is as close as we ever come to defending ourselves but you can never tell.

Hank

I'd sell the tools, then. Or throw them out.

Or at least tell him you did.

"With people coming by in the middle of the night looking for YOUR tools, I didn't want them in my home."

Speaking of which, did he leave a Sawzall at your house? I was looking to get one.....
 

HankT

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AbNo wrote:
I'd sell the tools, then. Or throw them out.

Or at least tell him you did.

"With people coming by in the middle of the night looking for YOUR tools, I didn't want them in my home."

Speaking of which, did he leave a Sawzall at your house? I was looking to get one.....

The OP said that

"The owner of the firm came and picked up his contractors tools and seemed very uneasy about discussing things. I suspect he had a problem with liability and wanted the incident over with. We never saw them again."

I would have demanded that the owner explain just how his guy(s) came to be responsible for a late night retrieval of said tools in the manner it was done.

Frankly, the failure to do so indicates that there is something, um, missing from the story...:lol:
 

hamourkiller

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Joined
Jun 21, 2007
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Location
, Texas, USA
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I dont know what to say? It happened and is described as best my wife and I can remember. This person has never come back so I think the outcome was good.

Points I took from the incedent:

Be cautious of contractors.

Cameras are good and are worth the money

Practice with guns pays off. When she became alarmed she picked the gun she liked shooting. And new how to shoot it.

Pre planning works, we had discussed this very scenerio. threat is outside the home, arm yourself, gather the children, call the police, await developements from a position of strength.

Now was this guy a nerd to stupid to get killed or abad guy come calling? We will never know for sure.

Hank
 

Lew

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Joined
Jun 15, 2006
Messages
217
Location
Moscow, ID
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hamourkiller wrote:
Our Sherrif dept has a kind of you take care of it attitude. Once called about a bunch of stray dogs dropped off by people. I wanted animal control out to fix the problem. The lady dispatcher asked "Do you have a shot gun?" then said goodby.
I like their style. My kind of place.
 

Particle

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Jul 31, 2007
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Now there you go assuming. It's suspicious how the contractor/employee/random guy are all in relation to each other, but that doesn't really prove anything.

Besides, how retarded would you have to be as a contractor to sell a security camera system, have an employee install it, and then have somebody go and break into your last client's house knowing you had just sold & installed an excellent camera system?

On a more amusing and less serious note, I'd have to say the real victim here is you being minus an AR-15 and a nice .45! :lol:
 

AbNo

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Well, Particle, the kicker here is...

If you've installed security systems, you know what their weaknesses are, where the cameras are, and more importantly, where the recording device is, or even if there is one. (which is why storing footage online is nice)

And actually, after having been in the SecSys business for a short time, I can pick problems out in a system. The hotel I work in now has a joke system that is all for show. Only the front entrance is covered, and barely at that. Also.... eh, I'll not rant about work more than usual. Suffice to say, it's a joke.
 

straightarrow

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Well Particle, the visitor had to have been connected to at least one of them. Otherwise he would not have been able to come up with an excuse about the left behind tools. So, no, it is not a stretch to think they are linked somehow.

Also, this wouldn't be the first residential security outfit to case a joint for later robbery.
 

AbNo

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One place I used to work has an appalingly holey security system.....

There's a couple of cameras on the corners of the building. There's a camera covering the parking area by the front entrance, two covering the lobby, and one of each end of the hallyway.

The side and back entrances are not covered at all, the sides are in fact completely uncovered.

There's no camera coverage past 30 feet or so on any hallway floor, and removing a hallway camera is as simple as pulling it out of the acoustic ceiling tile. Doing it without being spotted is as easy as ducking when you come out a stairway door.

With ONE exception, the lobby, no cameras are in view of any others, meaning that a camera could easily be taken out.

This is of course, a pureley subjective view, and since I've not identified where I worked, there shouldn't be a problem posting this.

I'm simply stating this to show a security system is easily defeated sometimes, and while occasionally a deterent, is not always effective, depending on how it is set up.
 

Particle

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I'm not suggesting that it has never happened. It just seems unlikely to me in this case because the perp took absolutely no action to avoid the installed security setup. If you engineered it with holes, you'd surely exploit them (or at least try) instead of moving in such a way as to be seen by the very security system that was put up. Either that, or this guy was half a brain cell short of having one brain cell.
 

AbNo

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OR, he knew where the recording device was.

If I take the tape/DVR/computer with me, and erase/destroy it, it doesn't matter HOW much I was picked up on camera.

Sure it's destroying evidence, but there's plenty of programs out there to erase, write, rewrite, and erase on a hard drive. Or I could just chuck it in the lake.

Destroying a tape? $1 toy magnet from the grocery store. A lighter also works wonders.

Optical disc? (CD/DVD) Snap it in half. Go after it with your keys. Toss it on the burning pile of magnetic tape.
 

No NAU

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Pure hypothetical speculation...

Perhaps the fellow who did the work realized the family was well armed and he obviously knew they were equipped with a new camera security system.

Perhaps said fellow told his "friend" whom he had a desire to make "go away" that he knew where there was a really easy job at a place he was still working on butwhere the cameras were not yet functional. If something happened during the crimehe could just claim he was picking up the tools.

So the plan was that the "friend" would head over there and break in and get shot without anyone even knowing he knew the fellow who did the original work (and wasn't it lucky they just had the new security system installed?!?)or no one would be home and he would do a B&E?

Maybe the "friend" figured out he was being setup and aborted last minute.

Regardless, excellent job of home and family defence.
 
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