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PA - Armed resident deters perp without a shot

rugbyman2000

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This one happened to my uncle a few weeks ago in northern Lancaster County, PA. He is a retired Army Ranger and I was really proud of him for exercising so much caution to protect his family, while also saving the stranger's life, too.

Anyway it was about 3 AM when a stranger came knocking at their front door. They live in a pretty rural township where you can see several neighboring houses, but there are no sidewalks or street lights and there is a good bit of distance between neighbors. My uncle went to the door with his Glock 9mm ready, and addressed the stranger without opening the door. The guy said his car broke down and needed to use the phone. My uncle did not yet reveal that he was armed, and never opened the door. He told the man he would gladly call someone to help him out, whether it be a friend or police or road service, etc. But my uncle told the man he couldn't open the door in the middle of the night.

The stranger continued pressing my uncle to open the door and let him use the phone. Eventually my uncle told the guy he was armed and would call the police to help with the car trouble. My uncle told me the guy took off running as soon as he was informed my uncle was armed,and he never came back.

Our best guess is that the stranger was drunk or high, and may not have meant any harm (burglars and rapists don't usually ring the doorbell). If it really was a drunk with car troubles, it's easy to guess why he didn't want the police to help.But nevertheless, I was proud of my uncle for not taking any chances, and also thinking smart and refusing to open the door, which could have escalated the situation. I can just imagine a beligerent drunk pushing his way into the house toward the phone, and doing something stupid to get himself shot in the process. Anyway, another story of sound thinking and personal protection that averted a situation that could have been escalated to something much worse.

The very mention of a gun sent the perp running, without even seeing it!
 

MetalChris

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Wow, another very interesting story from another newly registered user. Cool! :)
 

tarzan1888

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Thank you for the post.

Very good idea.

Keep them outside and you do the calling.

Your uncle did well.


Tarzan
 

rugbyman2000

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I heard about OpenCarry.org yesterday ono 580 AM out of Harrisburg, PA. They were talking about the small town cops in Dixon City, PA tramping on so many people's civil rights. I am involved with a couple online gungroups, but OpenCarry.org is really great! Glad I found out about it! Keep up the great work!
 

Citizen

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rugbyman2000 wrote:
SNIP (burglars and rapists don't usually ring the doorbell).
Home invaders and murderous criminals do.

Your uncle needs toreport this to the police.

A while back there was an article,I thinkin a gun magazine. I might havesome details sideways, but here is the gist:

The story was almost identical. Guy in rural northeast goes to door, but doesn't open it. Daughter is with him in the house. Bad Guy on the porch wants to come in to call police for broken down car.

Citizen offers to make the call without opening the door. Bad Guy gets insistent. Not pleading,insistent and demanding. Good Guy alerts to something's not right. Turns insideside-window glass beside door soBad Guy can see gun,or tellshe is armed or both.Bad Guy leavesquick.

Fast forward several months to a year. Two young adult males are arrested in another state in connection with the home invasion robbery and murder of some elderly people. Suspected of other assaults or murders across the northeast. One Bad Guy confesses. Starts telling about their whole series of crimes.

Somehow the father at the start of this story finds out about it.

Yes. Same ones. There was more than one on his porch that night. The second was standing just off to the side of the door with a large hunting knife. The plan was, according to the confession,that as soon as the man opened his door, knife-man would kill him.
 

rugbyman2000

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The story was almost identical. Guy in rural northeast goes to door, but doesn't open it. Daughter is with him in the house. Bad Guy on the porch wants to come in to call police for broken down car.

Citizen offers to make the call without opening the door. Bad Guy gets insistent. Not pleading,insistent and demanding. Good Guy alerts to something's not right. Turns insideside-window glass beside door soBad Guy can see gun,or tellshe is armed or both.Bad Guy leavesquick.

Fast forward several months to a year. Two young adult males are arrested in another state in connection with the home invasion robbery and murder of some elderly people. Suspected of other assaults or murders across the northeast. One Bad Guy confesses. Starts telling about their whole series of crimes.

Somehow the father at the start of this story finds out about it.

Yes. Same ones. There was more than one on his porch that night. The second was standing just off to the side of the door with a large hunting knife. The plan was, according to the confession,that as soon as the man opened his door, knife-man would kill him.

Thanks for this report. You are right that it may have been someone with the worst intentions at my uncle's door. When I first heardmy uncle's story, I wondered if someone was sneaking around to the backsliding glass door while the guy at the front door was causing a distraction, but it turns out the guy was solo.They did call the cops after the guy ran off, but I don't think the guy turned out to be a murderer or anything.

Our county had another terrible incident that was even more brazen in broad day light, about a year before the stranger at my uncle's door. (http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/217311).

Here is the gist of it: Four homies knocked on the front door claiming car trouble. The owner did not let them in his house, but instead came outside and offered his cell phone. The plan was for the homies to force him back in the house and rob the whole place for drug money. But a struggle ensued on his front porch, and one of the homies got scared and shot him in cold blood, killing him. The wife then came to the door and the homies took off running. They turned up to be the typicalworthless low-lifehomies. One of them had a myspace where he called himself "fearless gangsta" and had all this homie stuff on it. The victim, on the other hand,ran an organization that helped bring clean water to poor countries, and he was a big supporter of the local high school sports. He was basically the above-and-beyond community member, and was murdered for drug money on his front porch. At least they're seeking the death penalty for the guy who shot him. It's just too bad the victim didn't give that stupid "fearless gangsta" the death penalty himself, without getting shot first.

It is sad that you can't even open your front door in broad day light without taking your life in your hands. Mind you, this did not take place in a bad part of town. This happened in a$150K-$300K suburban/rural neighborhood in a boring farm county in PA.
 

deepdiver

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That was also the original method attempted by Robert Tulloch and James Parker and when people in DE proved too smart and too well armed for the ruse, they tried something a little different to gain access to the home of college professors Half and Susanne Zantop near Dartmouth University.
 
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