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

Rambler, I understand your sentiment, but I also know the character of people in general is not the same as it once was. I used to live in southern California and on a regular basis woke up to drug dealers shooting it out with each other. On an occasional basis I found some of the shell casings in my yard from those shoot outs.
Here in Des Moines, we seem to be having a rash of murders, shots fired and various thug activities. Even in my decent neighborhood, there are still unseemly types that I would not want in or around my home.
Yes, some of the polite folks may knock or ring the bell, and in just as many cases, the hood rats are checking to see if anyone is home. We had one incidents years ago in my neighborhood where someone came to the door. The dog, gun and I answered and we got a story about looking for someone specifics house. We told them the name was not familiar and they left. We found out later that these turds had knocked on every door in the neighborhood. If one of those families had not been home, I figure they would have been robbed that night. I did not call the police that night, but would do it in a second if it happened again.
As I stated earlier, we don't live in the same society we once did.

I have actually done this before. About 10 years ago my DH and I had gone to visit my aunt 500 miles away. We arrived about 2AM at the WRONG house! We did not have a cell phone at the time and the house looked JUST like the pictures I had seen of my aunt's house. When we pulled in the drive it woke up the family's teenage daughter, who in turn woke up her parents. We explained that we were lost and they let us use their phone to call my aunt. We were a block away from her house. We did stay near our car and did not even go near their porch.

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a young girl knocks on your door late at night and says she is broke down out on the road, so you begin to help her and three thugs jump you after you open the door..........bad situation......this is an operation now happening all over the country with crooks........be armed and holler out to who ever is knocking. do not open your door. I have had this happen three times in five years.....usually a drunk or drugged person stuck in a snow bank, I called 911 and they took care of it......response time about 30 minutes for them here. Have a plan ready to use when this happens.

we had a HUGE English Mastiff that took care of most people who knocked on the door, when we lived in KS we were way out in the country in a big ol farm house, it had a sliding glass door on the SIDE of the house not the front, some fool walked around to the side and knocked on the glass door one afternoon when my mom was home alone, it wasnt two secconds and our Dog was lunging at the door on his back legs towering over the man barking like he ment buisness, that guy didnt know any better but to think the glass might break and he would be a gonner, (Dubbs sounded and looked tough but would more likely lick you to death) mom got the Dubbs down and asked thru the glass what the man wanted, something about hunting on our land which was an automatic NO but still.

we then moved to ALabama where we lived in a Double Wide for a while in a court while we built, Dubbs kept FedEx, UPS, and Jehovawitness far far away from our lot. all packages were left outside the gate lol.

I have an intercom system to answer the door - from most of the rooms in my house. If it was not someone I know, then I would not go to the door, although I might give them instructions over the intercom. Unfortunately mapquest drops a lot of people at the bottom of my driveway, it seems they think every unknown address is at the end of our road, so we do get quite a few of these requests during the day.
Dawn

I would just roll over and glance at the monitor. Then I would decide if I wanted to answer the door or not.

Guess we are the weird ones, we would have just opened the door. As a general rule thieves don't knock.

We have had it happen twice here. Once was very early morning, someone letting us know we had a cow out. Other time was back when we first moved here, some kids stopped by not knowing the house had new owners. They were looking for a place to crash for the night. Very polite, apologised for bothering us.

Anyone who can even find our house "at the end of the middle of nowhere" would have to be pretty determined. I would go to the upstairs sliding window (6' X 4') and yell for them to step back out into the yard, then continue the discussion with me upstairs and them in the yard. Of course, with my hearing impairment I would have to have DD15 translate. During the daytime, the few times neighbors have knocked on the door, I leave DD15 talking through the closed door while I slip out the back door and around to the front porch. It takes a while because we don't wear much inside the house and there's a mad scramble to find clothes.

I don't have a doorbell. And my dogs are not well trained enough to back off as precisely as the op. I guess if I didn't know the person trying to get my attention...I would only open the door a crack and try to figure out what was up. The dogs would be right there barking and snarling their heads off. Might not be the best way but that is what I would do. We should probably have the guns more handy.

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I'm with Paul and Patt on this one.
I can't see a bad guy bothering with waking folks up.
And I guess I'm not so cynical as to have getting a gun as my first response...

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Nekked! It scares em away every time. Of coarse at my age it scares my wife away too.

Hank

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Alot of phones and autos have gps tracking now days as well. If I was lost,I would use it. I can get it on my phone.

Had that happen once... I was 15 and home alone. Up late watching a movie, lived in the middle of nowhere... Saw a car stop on the old highway outside, got suspicious... About 10 minutes later a knock at the door. Our Rottie/Lab went ballistic. I wasn't sure what to do, but the knocking continued... Finally I grabbed the dog by the collar and asked who it was through the door. Some guy who ran out of gas and needed to use the phone. I'm from California, so of course I'm suspicious, but lived in an area at the time with a zero crime rate... I dialed the cops and let them know the situation. They brought him out some gas. He was grateful, but I was a bit freaked out. Our dog was the sweetest thing in the world, and I was worried if I opened the door she'd turn friendly and try to lick him and he'd see she was nice... But on the other side of a door, she sounded like a ferocious killer! All your posts make me think that when I move back to the middle of nowhere, I better invest in some nice sweet Rotties or something else with a sweet temperament that looks huge and evil... Sheesh!

Well, my response today is different that even just a few years ago. Our "tolerant" and "understanding" community is now seeing a rise in, um, unsavory characters.

When I was a young adult, I was taught to yell "I'll get it!" even if no one was home with me before I verified the identity of whoever was at the door, making it known that I was "not alone". Maybe now I'll yell, "Oh for cying out loud put the gun away...I'll see who it is!"

One "shoot first" reply reminded me of an article in the paper in the last day or two. Seems they had found the remains of Gov Clemens son, who had been shot for trespassing on someone's property. The property owner had been shot by police. Even in Texas, you can't just shoot someone for coming on your property!

But I'm also reminded of one of my husband's co-workers, whose wife was killed by a home invader one day while he was out of town. I don't know whether the guy knocked.

Once in the 20 years we have lived here. Somebody was pounding on the door at 2am and jiggling the door knob, yelling somebodies name. Went to the door with the shotgun in hand and DW hung out with her Glock near the entrance to the living room trying to control the dog.

I had put one of those eye peep holes in the door so I would not have to open it to see who was out there. It was some kid who had drove up in a Chevy Blazer. Told the kid that nobody by that name lived here. We called the sheriff and they dispatched a car. During the 45 minutes it took them to arrive this kid left and returned two more times, each time pounding on the door and jiggling the knob.

45 minutes later the sheriff dispatcher called and said that the deputy had stopped the kid just as he was turning onto our private road and that the kid claimed he must have had the wrong address and thought a friend lived here. Deputy let the kid go and never did come to our house to talk to us.

I hate to be the one who say this, but Indiana has got to be the WORST state to drive in. The streets are numbered from the center of each county then they change at the county lines, its ridiculous. I was lost driving out there to pick up my ACD. I never get lost. I had to wait until morning, as I wasnt about to do as that guy did, befor I could get some real directions. and those were bad directions as 2 streets had the same exact name, but where different streets. Very confusing, I never want to drive there again....lol

We live on a rural main road, with zero cell phone reception, so we have people knock sometimes when they have hit a deer, run out of gas or had a accident nearby. My dogs always come to the door with me, and thankfully, the earliest someone has come so far has been 4:30 AM.I either call 9-11 or hand the cordless phone out the door, depending on the situation.
If someone came at 2 AM, I would be bringing a loaded shotgun to the door with me.
What makes me nervous is the people who run out of gas. We live 5 miles to a gas station one way, 8 miles the other. This has happened about 5 times in the last 3 years. All who we have given a few gallons to (with the exception of a college student) have claimed they have no money- how were they expecting to pay the gas station? One time, at about 10:30 PM when a car pulled IN our driveway and claimed they ran out of gas, my husband thought he was going to be robbed.

I live in town. I can't imagine anyone knocking on my door for really any reason. I keep my door locked at all times now after my crazy neighbor walked in when I was sleeping.

I live alone with two little kids. I don't have any 'arms' in the house of any sort. If someone knocked after 10:30pm and I wasn't expecting company I WOULD NOT answer the door. If someone started really banging I would just call the police. THey are only about a block away. I did have a really crazy person come to my door once. I knew the door was locked so I just hid in the closet. The crazy person had gone to my work looking for me so I had advanced warning she was on her way.

But normally during the day...if someone knocks, I have no choice but to just open it. I can't see who is there, I dont have a peep hole, I don't have a screen door. Nothing.

I live 2 1/2 miles from the mexico border so you can be sure I always answer visitors with a loaded gun, usually its just some lost illegals, but more than once some have tried to break in, 5 great danes sure can cure that even before I get to the door...