How do you Go to the Door...........??

My gate is locked, about 1/8 mile from the cabin. No one better be messin' around my back door, I shoot 1 in the air, you better be talkin'. I had a "hunter" wander onto my property last year, he high tailed it out when the first shot went off. I'd say he was pick'n 'shrooms but he didn't stay around to tell me. What part of PRIVATE did he not understand. Before hunting season starts I put the signs up every 30' on the fence line between me and the timber Co....James

a little over 6 years ago, i was the one knocking on the door.

my wife who was pregnant at the time, woke up bleeding around midnight.
the local hospital i worked at wasn't equipped to handle her situation, so it was a 2 hr ambulance ride for her. i had to bring our dogs to the kennel in the wee hours, knocking, and ringing till some one answered.
when you need help, really need help, its nice when people step up and offer it.

wife and son are both well.


keith

I think you done well , gun out of sight , dogs known but not how many or what kind , firm but not hostile , and you did say inner door i take that to mean the outer door was still closed , not sure what your outer door is made of but it's atleast somthing.

i notice lots of houses in the city have barred front outer doors then inner door it's not a half bad idea

i have thought a camera watching the front yard and door would be ideaL with a intercom, with cameras also watching the back and sides and anything else all view able from my desk or a monitor in the kitchen.

I think a few have had the same thought I did. He may have been dressed nice, but that means absolutely nothing. I thought myself that he was checking to see if someone was home. If no one had answered, he might have tried to come through the door.
Not all thieves are idiots. The nice clothes might have been a way to get you to open the door.
I am with everyone else, side arm in a ready position, but not visible. Dogs at the ready, but not visible. But I would have also insisted that the person get off the steps and be in the yard when I opened the door. Even in my city house, I don't trust people at my porch. Luckily my bedroom is right above the porch so my wife can watch the porch and see the yard from the window while I deal with jokers at the door.

I would have opened the door and asked if I could help.

Typically I would have come out in my robe expecting to see one of the many teenagers that call this their second home standing at the door--they no longer just walk in as 2 of them have been bitten by the dogs lol. I would have peeked around the corner from the hallway to see who it was. Luckily we have a sliding glass door as our front door so you can see everything/one out there, and decided from there if I was opening the door for them or grabbing the phone---of course everyone would be awake in the house because of the 6 dogs freaking out. This a.m. there was a truck up on the road making all sorts of noise with my garbage cans so I turned the dogs out and the little vandals took off but not before dumping, spreading, running over every bit of garbage (today is pick up day so the cans were Full) across and down the road, cans included.......Atleast I know it wasn't just us, as I saw the neighbors had had their potted trees broken in the road too......

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You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him float on his back.

I'd open the door and asked what I can help with?

People who ring the doorbell at 2:00 in the morning are not typically bad people. Why would anyone wanting to do harm ring the bell?????

It's the ones who don't knock or ring the bell....

I'd assume something on my place was on fire, or livestocxk were out, and so yea I wouldn't get back to sleep either. But not worrying about my saftey, just the shock of worrying what was wrong with my place....

Kind of a shame we are reduced to thinking like some in this thread, for a doorbell ringing at 2:00 in the morning? Polite people ring doorbells, give it some thought....

--->Paul

I would not have opened that door for anything! We used to have people drive back here but we put up Gates and so they cannot even drive back here now. I would probably have dialed 911 before even going to the door. I would have been too scared to open that door!

Agreed.... DH might have gone out the back and around the front..me.. I aint opening until I know who it is... if someone wanders on my porch at 235 in the Am they aint lost they more than likely mean harm... I am so far from anything or any highway..down many dirt roads that to be that lost is unimaginable and highly suspicious

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Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

unfortunately so do criminals

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Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

Everyone should already have a plan for this unexpected occurrence. I have had the "wrong" people to come to my place late at night and I have done stupid things in the past. NO MORE. I will go to the door armed. I tell, through the door, whomever is there that 911 has been called and when the sheriff's deputy arrives that I will respond to their needs and for them to wait in the vehicle. Meanwhile I remain armed and in the house. I suggest everyone to pre-establish a plan for such situations.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

I've had two encounters with late night visitors, who had no concept of the meaning of locked gates, or no trespassing signs. One incident was handled by the dogs, the other, by Mr. Mossberg. And in both cases, the Sheriff's office was notified, and reports were taken for future reference. No repeat offenders, so far. Once, the chain locking the gate was cut. If that doesn't indicate criminal intent, I can't imagine what does. I have no intention of being burglarized, or held liable for a meth lab.

I'd be pretty worried about vehicles or people wandering around. Some of the stories here address that, and yea - I'd be concerned. That's different.

Criminals ringing the doorbell?

Just doesn't seem much of a threat. If they mean harm, they aren't going to be ringing the doorbell. The threat level becomes very low at that point. imho

So far it's emergency pregnancies, livestock out, kid's friends, and lost people at the door. Do we really need to shoot all those people first & ask questions later?

Certainly be cautious. I am in the middle of the day, too. Just - sure hate to live with soe of these folk as 'neighbors' when their concern is about how quick they can shoot me, or not be bothered with me, if I don't bleed to death I can go bother someone else not them! I hope what goes around comes around - maybe some live in fear for a reason, they get what they give.

Dissapointing.

--->Paul

We have had a lot less of that since cell phones have become so popular.It does wreck your night.A group of young men drove into my yard one night got out-ran my water hydrant-and a couple started urinating.I stepped out the door with my twelve gauge and shot up in the air.It was a sight to behold but that never happened again.

I never have to go to the door because somebody knocked on it. The dogs will wake me before that. I am armed all the time so I will be armed. Usually where I live it is people that are really lost and usually I would lead them to where they are going ( no more than 5 miles to a hwy.) I don't have to worry about somebody messing around my place since I have a dog door and the dogs go where ever they please they will greet any visitor.

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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

Well I would have went to the door to see who it was. Not to uncommon for us to have Kids , Nieghbors , Breakdowns , ect. knocking on our door at that time of night. Although I never said I wouldn't be armed. Ours is the only house that can be seen from the road were we are at. 6 houses within a mile of us but none except ours can be seen from the road. Besides the yard dog would have woke me up well before they got to the door. Had to pull more than 1 car from the ditch (Dang Deer) or help get them started or give them gas to get into town or call a tow truck. Even had nieghbors son sleep on the couch when his buddies dropped him at the wrong house drunk at 3am. I called his Dad told him he was here and safe and I would be waking him up at 5 and bringing him home , he said thanks and I'll be up when you get him here. Sure wouldn't of wanted to be that young man when he walked thru the door. He was 15 and supposed to be home by 11 real good kid just made a very bad judgment call that night. Although I did get alot done by that young man after that night and he would never take anything for helping me. All he would ever do was mumble something about his Dad and being very sorry he woke us up that time of night. LOL

We dont have any visible neighbors or neighbors within hearing distance but the house is close to a 2 lane blacktop and we are cautious. This just happened not too long ago about 10:30 pm when someone knocked on our french doors (we were in the family room watching TV and it was the only lights on in the house). I grabbed my AR-15 to have ready but I didnt brandish it and it turned out to be a young woman which initially made me concerned she may have had someone waiting out in the dark. I had her step back before I opened the door and it turns out she was out of gas and scared half to death so we brought her inside to call her husband (he was at work) and I took her to get some gas and got her on her way.

Folks are pretty cautious around here about coming onto your property because everyone, and I mean everyone, is armed. I am all for helping people out but if you dont know them it just makes sense to be careful. Our front door has a 6 light window so we can see who is at the door and I always ask them to step back off the porch before I open the door. As for calling 911, average response time here is about 45 minutes and its just accepted that you have to take care of yourself.

We dont live in fear and we dont have many problems here but I believe in making ourselves as hard a target as possible. We keep the sodium vapor light on in the barnyard, we keep the porch lights on at night and we keep doors to the house and vehicles locked. I think it also helps us that the MIL has a trailer on the property and we currently have 4 vehicles between us so it always looks like we have several people home.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

Last winter we had a man come to our door in the middle of the night. It was quite snowy out and we didn't hear him knocking as we were all sound asleep upstairs but the dogs did and went off. That's what woke us up. Daughter went downstairs (wish she had waited for her dad) and the guy had walked around to our back door by then and pushed it open and was coming into the house! He was very drunk and and had got stuck in the ditch across the road from our house. Husband took him home but he was a real piece of work. He passed out in the car and when he woke up he kept punching the back of the seat and carrying on. He started asking where his girlfriend was. My husband made him get out of the car and called the cops. We were afraid he had done something with his girlfriend or that she was stranded somewhere. Cops came and looked around but couldn't find any other footprints. I guess he made it the rest of the way to his house. He showed up the next day when they were pulling his car out and apologized. He had a black eye which he didn't the night before so I think his girlfriend socked him one when he got home! My brother figured out who it was and said he had been fighting with her at the bar the night before and she got a ride with someone else. He said he is a real stupid drunk. Scared me someone just walking into our house like that. We live on a dirt road and our driveway is set off the road a little. No, we don't lock our doors, ever. Even when we go away from home. Most people around here are really good and just need help out of a ditch or something but that was our first in the middle of the night call. Hubby works nights and I am here by myself with my 2 kids - but they are not little 18 & 22. I do have a loaded pistol if needed and 2 dogs though the Golden Retriever will just love anyone who comes in! LOL!

There were some very gruesome thrill-kill murders in Vermont near Dartmouth a few years back that still influence my decision. The door does not get answered after a reasonable hour. If it gets answered in the evening, it is with the outer glass door locked, and gun in one hand, telephone in the other. We are off the road enough that the neighbors are far more likely to get those visits.

Just made me think about my later father who welcomed two deputies one night with his hunting riffle ... They were just coming in to let him know that his warehouse was under fire earlier that night but that the fire department got it under control quickly .... I just remember the whole house being lighted up by their flashlight ... Both of the deputies were pretty cool about it as they just woke up on of our neighbor by ringing at the wrong door and being welcome the same way