Scenario for Discussion

[ghentry]

After reading Steves "Another Interesting Incident" I thought of the possibility of the following scenario happening. How would you handle it?

SCENARIO

You come home from a long day of Christmas shopping. It's around 9 pm. You walk in the back door and set your packages, cell phone and keys down on the kitchen table. You head down the hallway towards the bathroom and hear a noise coming from a bedroom.

You cautiously enter the bedroom with your weapon drawn and come upon a burglar rifling through the drawers. He doesn't appear to be armed and is surprised by you. You order him to the ground and after several requests, he complies.

He remains on the ground, but is verbally threatening you. It's easy to see that he is much stronger and larger than you are. You live alone and the nearest phone is either in the kitchen down the hallway or the master bedroom upstairs.

What do you do?

[jbirds1210]

The attackers family would have one less place setting to worry about for Christmas dinner. If your cell phone is clipped to your belt it could be an option, other than that I can't see one. I look forward to the other people's response.....this is an interesting scenario!
Jason

[Kalrog]

This scenario has a couple of problems for me... first I never use my back door - too hard to get to with the dogs in the back yard. Second, I always have my cell phone.

But let's ignore that for now. If he isn't actively threatening me then he doesn't get ventilated. If he lunges at me things might be different.

I would probably order him to crawl out to where I can get to the phone and call 911 - using speaker phone (all of my phones have that) and leave it running while the cops are on the way. If he complies, then he spends the time in jail. If not, well it depends on what he does.

[Paladin]

At my house....hmmmm.... I've got 2 rather large capable dogs that don't like strangers... and the Great Dane knows how to open doors... just in case they burglar breaks into a room where the door is closed...

So by the time I get home, I'm guessing it would be all over.

[ghentry]

Ok Kalrog, you're being difficult.

With all of the packages in your arms, you.....
(pick one)
a. dropped your cell phone in the parking lot and broke it
b. knocked it off your belt clip and broke it
c. wore a hole in your pocket and it dropped and broke
d. don't tell me you have it on a lanyard!

Substitue back door for front door and substitute kitchen for entry table.

-------------------------------------------


Not to start a whole dogs thread, but I once had neighbors with a dog so bad they replaced all of the glass along the front of their house with plexiglass because it was busting out the glass to get to the mailman.

Sure enough, they were burglarized. People can outwit an animal. If not, oven cleaner takes them out pretty quick.

[ThunderDownUnder]

Welll.... that's a good one.

Since you can't go out and buy a dog and a cell phone real fast.....

Of your two phone options, if you are wanting to keep him in place, try the downstairs phone. I don't know who are or what you are so... generally speaking, I would say definitely don't try to restrain him unless you know what you are doing . You probably don't have any flex cuffs or handcuffs, right?

One other thing you might consider, to ID him, have him take his wallet or ID out if he is stupid enough to carry one. Of course , you are yelling and screaming at him to do so. That way when he runs and gets away, you may still be able to ID him.

I would also guess that he would meekly lie down and be quiet until having an opportunity to escape. I can't see someone lying down on the floor and threathening someone. They will usually do it to your face to get you to back off or back down. Also don't get into a conversation with him.
I have had a couple of students who have been disarmed by burglars in their own home when were reluctant to control the burglar or shoot as the burglar closed to contact range on them. One student was severely beaten , the other ,lucky for him, was holding an unloaded shotgun on the attacker. The attacker grabbed the gun, pulled the trigger, click, then proceeded to beat the hell out of him. My student still cries about it when he tells the story. Can't say that I blame him.

Odds are, in your scenario, badguy's going to have a chance at running unless you can scare him enough to lay in place while you call the PO-lice.
Try the kitchen phone, 911, handgun at high ready,keep your front sight on him at all times !!! Hope for the best , train for the worst.

Also another safer, better option would be to call the police from the kitchen as soon as you recognize a breakin has occured rather than attempting to "clear" the house yourself.

J

[stevie_d_64]

This is a good one...

But everyone knows what their parameters are anyway in regards to personal habits, layout of your house, etc etc...

I personally would have not grabbed a means of communications before setting off to see what the noise was all about...Either cell phone, or home phone (cordless)...Even thought we all know that a smart burgler would find the telephone jack box and cut/disable that system...

Otherwise it would be a standard encounter...

A BGD-003 senario...

B ad G uy D own, 3 shots, 2 COM, 1 to the head...

Obi-Wan taught me well...

[anygunanywhere]

I more than likely will come home to the alarm system loudly announcing a problem and LCPD will be waiting in the drivaway.

I am convinced that home alarms must be part of your defensive strategy.

Ours is armed when we sleep. The wife keeps it armed when home alone.

I guarantee that if the "Duress /hostage" code is activated, LCPD will arrive with weapons drawn at all entrances.

It seemed strange to have an attractive LCPD officer pointing a Glock at me telling me to lay on the floor. again.

The stinkin keypad was faulty and the codes were too numerically similar.

"I'm the owner! I'm the owner!"

Sheesh.

I do like living here.

Just to stay on thread, Alarms do minimize the chance of walking in on the BG.

[stevie_d_64]

I more than likely will come home to the alarm system loudly announcing a problem and LCPD will be waiting in the drivaway.

I am convinced that home alarms must be part of your defensive strategy.

Ours is armed when we sleep. The wife keeps it armed when home alone.

I guarantee that if the "Duress /hostage" code is activated, LCPD will arrive with weapons drawn at all entrances.

It seemed strange to have an attractive LCPD officer pointing a Glock at me telling me to lay on the floor. again.

The stinkin keypad was faulty and the codes were too numerically similar.

"I'm the owner! I'm the owner!"

Sheesh.

I do like living here.

Just to stay on thread, Alarms do minimize the chance of walking in on the BG.

+1

The damage and theft will have already been done...

And the Beegee(s) beating feet elsewhere...

I can't believe you let a "attractive" LCPD boss you around like that!

And I won't even ask what the gender was...

I know I'm going to catch it for this one for sure!

[anygunanywhere]

I can't believe you let a "attractive" LCPD boss you around like that!

And I won't even ask what the gender was...

I know I'm going to catch it for this one for sure!

The business end of a .40/.45 Glock is mighty menacing. I durn near dampened my droors.

I almost edited my post with a clarifier on the gender of said officer, and decided not to, and clean forgot about ol' Stevie lurking in the shadows.

I don't ride sidesaddle.

And yes, a FEMALE LCPD will most certainly talk me into laying down on the floor of my own home.

[jimlongley]

Besides that fact that one of my dogs would have to be dead, and the other three would be going berserk, if I heard strange noises in the house I would have one of the portable phones from elsewhere in the house with me.

The BG, assuming he cooperates to the extent that he lies down on my bedroom floor, will have handcuffs on him real quick, or tie wraps, both of which are kept in my bedroom drawer.

I would be carefully observing my 6, as a matter of fact, since my bedroom is at the end of the house/hall, I would position myself so that I could observe the door while doing whatever else I had to.

OTOH, I probably would have swept the house on the way to the room, not a hard thing to do in my house, only one room not easily seen from the hall/LR/DR. A nice layout for sweeps.

[John]

Your scenario made me consider that my alarm system will alert a burglar that I’m home. Even if the alarm is off, the door chime will sound in my bedroom at the alarm key pad (in my bedroom). I guess I need to consider deactivating the door chime feature. It’s been turned since the little one was first able to reach the door knobs.

[XD_Dan]

...will have handcuffs on him real quick, or tie wraps, both of which are kept in my bedroom drawer.

[jimlongley]

...will have handcuffs on him real quick, or tie wraps, both of which are kept in my bedroom drawer.

The cuffs are Navy Shore Patrol souveniers, and my wife counted once and found that I have, in various parts of the house, more than 15,000 cable ties, YES that's fifteen THOUSAND!!!

Of course I was a phone man for a lot of years and they just kind of came home with me from time to time. Not really on purpose, just stuck in pockets and such.

No she didn't count them individually, just made rough estimates on a per package basis.

I keep three extra large ones in my dresser "junk drawer" because I used one once to effect a temporary middle of the night repair when a bolt fell out of the bed frame, now they are nearby and ready for use.

I also have two flashlight next to the bed and three more in the dresser, OK two don't have any batteries in them.

And my Shore Patrol night stick and my KaBar also reside in the dresser.

[flintknapper]

The BG, assuming he cooperates to the extent that he lies down on my bedroom floor, will have handcuffs on him real quick, .

Glad to see someone else has thought this far ahead. I never carry, that I don't have a tactical flashlight and a pair of S&W hinged cuffs. The first thing that enters most peoples mind when I tell them this is: Well, I guess he thinks he's the Police! Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have simply realized that there may be a situation where there is more than one threat, or that a BG might need to be restrained (for his safety and mine).

In the scenario above, you could toss a pair of cuffs to the burglar and demand that he put them on, or his other option would be that you ventilate him. I don't recommend that you restrain him yourself. If he complies, then the threat he poses to you has come down a little. If he bolts, let him go...he will be readily identifiable with cuffs on. If he doesn't comply, nothing has been lost.

The totality of a situation would dictate whether or not I ever used "cuffs" in an altercation. But, it certainly gives you options.