MBaboon
Member
For a long time I have lurked in the shadows of this great forum soaking up advice and useful information. I guess early Saturday morning was my first chance to put everything to the test.
About 6 months ago I put in a wireless Ademco system to add a new layer of security to my home which btw is in a small town near Wichita. Very low threat area. We chose not to have a monitoring service as my intention was to use it while home. We rarely are away from home long, and property is replaceable. So most of the night I had been moving furniture and junk in preparation for a garage sale. As the night wound down I had a few drinks and went to bed. About quarter before 1:00am my wife and I were awaken by the gut wrenching screech of our alarm. With no false alarms to date and with good confidence that the system was well thought out and installed, this instantly registered as the real deal.
When I first installed the system I had a short chat with my wife as to what would be done in the event of an alarm. I would immediately grab the bedside XD-9 and go straight to my 18 month son in the adjacent bedroom. My wife would follow, get him, and retreat to the bedroom and dial 911. By this time the alarm panel would verbally identify the fault location to dial me in to the direction of the threat. At which point I would also more than likely return to the family, lock the bedroom door and take a defensive position with the 12 guage and leave the handgun to my wife. I don't have much interest in clearing the house and potentially leaving my family defenseless. I am not very confident in my wifes ability to handle a firearm should I fail. **working on this** In my eyes the only shortcoming to this plan is if an intruder chose to break in through my sons room or a second bedroom directly adjacent to his. All 3 rooms are in line. This would would immediately place us very close to a threat in the event that one would be stupid enough to crawl through a window after hearing an alarm.
Anyway with only this short conversation, no drills or walkthroughs really, and with both us being dead asleep, several drinks in my system to boot, we executed this plan well. I always worry about fumbling to get the gun out of the case, or having a mental lapse causing precious seconds but no problems at all. Just very alert and deliberate actions all the while being very concerned. In fact recounting this I am a little shaky as I type. The only hitch was my wife opened my sons door while I covered the hall. Not too worried about this because we have a baby monitor in the nursery that we are both very in tune with. The only way to open that window to gain entry would be very noisely with a glass break. So I consider that proof enough that no threat existed in his room.
At about this moment the alarm identified the fault at 1 of my two basement windows which can be accessed through window wells at ground level. The windows themselves about 6' down. I have motion sensors on these windows as well as wooden dowels to prevent them from sliding. The reason for the motion sensors is a fear of someone breaking the glass without us hearing, and gaining entry without disturbing a standard window sensor. So with a habbit of closing these bedroom doors to prevent entry from the cat there was absolutely no reason to think this was not the real deal.
So given the location I decided to quickly cover the only access from the basement to the upstairs in our fwd stairwell. Suprisingly I was not shaky or jittery. But it is a hell of a feeling as I am rounding that banister with it mind that if anything is there when I flip the light that I am going to have to shoot someone. Never had that feeling in my mind before and its something I hope I do not feel again. Somewhere in here my wife shut off the god awful alarm noise too. After a few seconds of assessing the situation and deciding how to proceed my wife notified me 911 was on the line. At this point our Boxer was next to me. Now I love this dog but he is a no good guard dog. However he does obey well and the command "Go see" does get some alertness registering through his lil brain. I told him to go downstairs and "Go see" which he did. By his reactions I would decide what to do next. Once he got down the stairs he seemed to flush out the intruder....the damn cat! I HATE CATS!
Anyway with things coming together in my brain on what actually happened I decided to cautiously clear the basement which has good visibility in the main open area. The dog gave me no reason to believe there was a threat in the open bedroom he was standing in. This immediatly relieved my senses as I realized the cat who frequently likes to make the red light of the sensor come on by pawing at it, had set the alarm off. My wife or I left the door open while moving stuff to the garage. Just to be safe I clear the basement anyway which under any other circumstance I would not do.
I notified my wife of the situation and took the phone and let the operator know as well. Soon after, and only a few minutes from the call, two officers show up which was evident from the lasers proceeding up my walkway to the front door. After telling them the situation they calmly checked things out, while I felt like a real ass and was apologizing for wasting their time.
Did not get much sleep that night since its hard to come down from a rush like that. My wife was very rattled, and my son had a heck of a time getting back to sleep. All in all it was nice knowing that we quickly responded to the situation as planned. Gives me a bit of confidence if this ever happens again. I sure hope it does not though.
So questions comes here. In a real threat how would police respond to me being armed at the front door and covering my stairs? Last thing I want to do is get shot or be a distraction while a bad guy makes a move. From an officers view responding to a break in and seeing a armed man has to put them in a real precarious spot.
In this event all my doors would be well locked as well. The whole point is to make entry as difficult as possible and I have deadbolts on my doors which lock from the inside only. How best to let them in without endangering myself or family.
This turned out to be a long read so thanks for taking the time. I am open to any additional advice or criticisms.
About 6 months ago I put in a wireless Ademco system to add a new layer of security to my home which btw is in a small town near Wichita. Very low threat area. We chose not to have a monitoring service as my intention was to use it while home. We rarely are away from home long, and property is replaceable. So most of the night I had been moving furniture and junk in preparation for a garage sale. As the night wound down I had a few drinks and went to bed. About quarter before 1:00am my wife and I were awaken by the gut wrenching screech of our alarm. With no false alarms to date and with good confidence that the system was well thought out and installed, this instantly registered as the real deal.
When I first installed the system I had a short chat with my wife as to what would be done in the event of an alarm. I would immediately grab the bedside XD-9 and go straight to my 18 month son in the adjacent bedroom. My wife would follow, get him, and retreat to the bedroom and dial 911. By this time the alarm panel would verbally identify the fault location to dial me in to the direction of the threat. At which point I would also more than likely return to the family, lock the bedroom door and take a defensive position with the 12 guage and leave the handgun to my wife. I don't have much interest in clearing the house and potentially leaving my family defenseless. I am not very confident in my wifes ability to handle a firearm should I fail. **working on this** In my eyes the only shortcoming to this plan is if an intruder chose to break in through my sons room or a second bedroom directly adjacent to his. All 3 rooms are in line. This would would immediately place us very close to a threat in the event that one would be stupid enough to crawl through a window after hearing an alarm.
Anyway with only this short conversation, no drills or walkthroughs really, and with both us being dead asleep, several drinks in my system to boot, we executed this plan well. I always worry about fumbling to get the gun out of the case, or having a mental lapse causing precious seconds but no problems at all. Just very alert and deliberate actions all the while being very concerned. In fact recounting this I am a little shaky as I type. The only hitch was my wife opened my sons door while I covered the hall. Not too worried about this because we have a baby monitor in the nursery that we are both very in tune with. The only way to open that window to gain entry would be very noisely with a glass break. So I consider that proof enough that no threat existed in his room.
At about this moment the alarm identified the fault at 1 of my two basement windows which can be accessed through window wells at ground level. The windows themselves about 6' down. I have motion sensors on these windows as well as wooden dowels to prevent them from sliding. The reason for the motion sensors is a fear of someone breaking the glass without us hearing, and gaining entry without disturbing a standard window sensor. So with a habbit of closing these bedroom doors to prevent entry from the cat there was absolutely no reason to think this was not the real deal.
So given the location I decided to quickly cover the only access from the basement to the upstairs in our fwd stairwell. Suprisingly I was not shaky or jittery. But it is a hell of a feeling as I am rounding that banister with it mind that if anything is there when I flip the light that I am going to have to shoot someone. Never had that feeling in my mind before and its something I hope I do not feel again. Somewhere in here my wife shut off the god awful alarm noise too. After a few seconds of assessing the situation and deciding how to proceed my wife notified me 911 was on the line. At this point our Boxer was next to me. Now I love this dog but he is a no good guard dog. However he does obey well and the command "Go see" does get some alertness registering through his lil brain. I told him to go downstairs and "Go see" which he did. By his reactions I would decide what to do next. Once he got down the stairs he seemed to flush out the intruder....the damn cat! I HATE CATS!
Anyway with things coming together in my brain on what actually happened I decided to cautiously clear the basement which has good visibility in the main open area. The dog gave me no reason to believe there was a threat in the open bedroom he was standing in. This immediatly relieved my senses as I realized the cat who frequently likes to make the red light of the sensor come on by pawing at it, had set the alarm off. My wife or I left the door open while moving stuff to the garage. Just to be safe I clear the basement anyway which under any other circumstance I would not do.
I notified my wife of the situation and took the phone and let the operator know as well. Soon after, and only a few minutes from the call, two officers show up which was evident from the lasers proceeding up my walkway to the front door. After telling them the situation they calmly checked things out, while I felt like a real ass and was apologizing for wasting their time.
Did not get much sleep that night since its hard to come down from a rush like that. My wife was very rattled, and my son had a heck of a time getting back to sleep. All in all it was nice knowing that we quickly responded to the situation as planned. Gives me a bit of confidence if this ever happens again. I sure hope it does not though.
So questions comes here. In a real threat how would police respond to me being armed at the front door and covering my stairs? Last thing I want to do is get shot or be a distraction while a bad guy makes a move. From an officers view responding to a break in and seeing a armed man has to put them in a real precarious spot.
In this event all my doors would be well locked as well. The whole point is to make entry as difficult as possible and I have deadbolts on my doors which lock from the inside only. How best to let them in without endangering myself or family.
This turned out to be a long read so thanks for taking the time. I am open to any additional advice or criticisms.
Had a gun on me but it was holstered. The thing is not to be scared or paranoid and grabbing the gun and pulling a rambo. As far as the police, first identify the problem and then call the police but when you hear or see them arrive put you gun away since they do not know whose bad or good.
