For what it's worth:ArmyMama wrote:I live in a so-so neighborhood. I've had waaaaay too many "magazine salesmen" come to my door through the years. I do have 4 dogs, and when the doorbell rings, all heck breaks loose in my house! Of course, if you came in, they would love you to death, but the person on the other side of the door doesn't know that.
Some years ago, we had a repo man come to our door at 12:30am. He rang the doorbell and started beating on the door. My husband went to the door. He demanded to be let in. He was there to repo someone's car. We had two cars in the driveway, both paid for, neither one running, and neither the type of car he was looking for. He was screaming and yelling at my husband, who was yelling back at him through the window. He tried to push our door in. We had a 3 y.o., 5 y.o. and a 6 y.o. asleep, and I didn't want them awakened. The repo man would not go away. Normally, I would have gotten up and taken the 12 gauge pump to the door and pumped it so they guy could hear it, but I had shattered my leg and could only walk with a walker. Couldn't manage a walker and the 12 gauge, so I called the police, which were just 1/2 mile away. They sent 3 squad cars. The assured the repo man that we were not the people he was looking for. My husband told him to PLEASE take both cars in the driveway, as neither of them ran. The police said he was not breaking any laws (doing all this at 12:30am?) I told them he was breaking my laws if he woke my kids up. He got off our porch and sat in his truck in front of our house ALL NIGHT LONG. The police said there was nothing they could do as he was breaking no laws. This guy has us scared to death. He finally left at 4:30am. This freaked us out! I have NO TOLERANCE for unknown people coming to my door after this. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and church people are fine, everyone else had best stay off my front porch!
Awhile back I bought a reasonably high powered green laser pointer ($$$) and have had very good success with it in discouraging un-invited people who want to be in my yard at night (one of the hazards of living near a juvinile detenssion center). From inside of the house, well out of sight I can hold the green dot quite steady on a chest, shoulder or other body part. This is apparently so disconserting to the interloper that they seem to want to leave "faster than a speeding bullet" when I turn on the laser.
Gerry