Kingpin008's post, 'What a wakeup call!' reminded me to post this account of something that happened to me about four years ago.
Its more of a lesson than a discussion of tactics as you will see, but I hope you find it interesting nonetheless.
At the time, I lived in an apartment in a large building. I was asleep in bed with my then girlfriend. We were woken up at 4am by a commotion, shouting and banging. I got up to see what was happening, and looking through the spyhole in my front door, I saw a man and a woman banging on my neighbor's door, which was directly opposite my door. They were pounding on his door and yelling at him to let them in.
I went back to bed and we listened for a while, annoyed at the inconvenience but not particularly worried.
Then we heard a knock on my door.
At first we ignored it, hoping they would just give up and go away, but they didn't. I grabbed my 1911 and crept to my front door and listened. I heard the man explaining to the woman that they could get onto the balcony, peel back the rubber seal from the window in my neighbor's back door and gain access to his apartment that way.
They then started to shout through my letterbox (the hole in the door type) saying that they were staying with my next door neighbor and were locked out and needed me to let them in so they could get onto the balcony. They were trying to sound polite, but then I heard the man say to the woman that he'd just kick the door down if nobody answered.
I told them in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going to let them in and if they didn't go away I'd call the police.
My girlfriend was out of bed by this time and standing near me. I told her to go into the living room and call the police.
The pair outside were still trying to persuade me to let them in, using a bizarre combination of syrupy talk and shouted threats. I told them that the police had been called and that they had better **** off because they'd be here shortly.
They tried again to be 'nice' saying that they had no quarrel with me and that they just wanted to get onto the balcony. The woman pushed her cellphone through the letterbox as 'collateral'.
I shouted one last time that the police were on their way, and then I made a mistake, because I called to my girlfriend (who was now on the phone to the police) and thus gave away the fact that I was not there alone.
I pushed the cellphone back through the letterbox and told them to give it up, and they both snapped.
The girl started screaming that she was going to 'shiv' (stab) my girlfriend and began to attempt to kick my door open.
My girlfriend was on the phone to the police by now and the operator kept asking her to repeat herself because the banging was so loud.
I went into the living room to find out what was happening, and my girlfriend told me that the operator kept asking her if the people were inside the apartment. I heard her saying that the banging sound was the sound of the door being kicked in and that although they weren't inside yet, they would be in a minute or two.
The operator told her that the police were on their way.
It was about this time that the man joined in. I watched through the spyhole as he instructed the woman to turn her attention to my neighbor's door while he took over on my door. He started screaming obscenities and death threats and kicking my door in.
He had a much more powerful kick and I could hear wood splintering, so I leaned against the door to stop it coming open.
This seemed to do the trick, and then what seemed like an eternity passed, me leaning against the door as hard as I could and him kicking relentlessly and shouting that he was going to stab/kill me and my girlfriend.
The police station was directly over the road from my building, so I was pretty confused as to why they hadn't turned up, as it had been about 20mins since we called. I yelled to my girlfriend to call again and find out what was happening. They operator told her again that they were on their way.
The kicking and yelling carried on for another few minutes and then they must have gotten tired because they gave up and left, with a few parting threats and a promise that they would be back.
About half an hour after they left, my intercom rang. It was the building concierge, asking if I was ok. He said he had the police with him, and I asked to speak to them. They told me that there was no point coming up to my apartment as the 'intruders' had left, and that they had followed them out of the building but subsequently lost them.
I said that I'd like to make a statement, but he told me that there was no point, as they had not actually broken into my home. I told him that the only reason they didn't get in was the fact that I was leaning against the door, and that the wood around my doorframe was badly cracked and splintered. He pretty much fobbed me off.
The next day, my neighbor knocked on my door. He told me that the man was a former friend of his, and the woman was the man's sister. He said that he had stopped being friends with them because they had started to use crack and turned into people he didn't like.
Crack certainly explains how they were behaving and the relentlessness of their attack. I shuddered to think what would have happened if they had managed to get the door open.
I'm sure many of you are now thinking that I should have stood back from the door and opened up on them with my 1911 when they got through. After all, if they had a gun the could have shot me through the door while I was leaning against it. You might call it pot luck that they didn't manage to kick the door in, because I would have had my back to them.
I'm really looking forward to hearing different views on this situation, because it was pretty traumatic for me (as you can probably imagine) and it's one of those things you turn over and over in your head.
The end result was that no harm came to me or my girlfriend, but things could so easily have turned out differently.
It's interesting to read these things and try to imagine what you would do in the same situation, but before you do, there's another angle to this story that you must take into account:
I'm in the USA now, but when this happened, I lived in 'Great' Britain. Birmingham, England to be precise.
My 1911 was deactivated, which means that it was rendered incapable of firing.
While it was legal to own, had I had used it to threaten the intruders, I would have gone to prison. If they had ignored the threat (they were on crack remember) I would have had the proverbial two pound club.
Its more of a lesson than a discussion of tactics as you will see, but I hope you find it interesting nonetheless.
At the time, I lived in an apartment in a large building. I was asleep in bed with my then girlfriend. We were woken up at 4am by a commotion, shouting and banging. I got up to see what was happening, and looking through the spyhole in my front door, I saw a man and a woman banging on my neighbor's door, which was directly opposite my door. They were pounding on his door and yelling at him to let them in.
I went back to bed and we listened for a while, annoyed at the inconvenience but not particularly worried.
Then we heard a knock on my door.
At first we ignored it, hoping they would just give up and go away, but they didn't. I grabbed my 1911 and crept to my front door and listened. I heard the man explaining to the woman that they could get onto the balcony, peel back the rubber seal from the window in my neighbor's back door and gain access to his apartment that way.
They then started to shout through my letterbox (the hole in the door type) saying that they were staying with my next door neighbor and were locked out and needed me to let them in so they could get onto the balcony. They were trying to sound polite, but then I heard the man say to the woman that he'd just kick the door down if nobody answered.
I told them in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going to let them in and if they didn't go away I'd call the police.
My girlfriend was out of bed by this time and standing near me. I told her to go into the living room and call the police.
The pair outside were still trying to persuade me to let them in, using a bizarre combination of syrupy talk and shouted threats. I told them that the police had been called and that they had better **** off because they'd be here shortly.
They tried again to be 'nice' saying that they had no quarrel with me and that they just wanted to get onto the balcony. The woman pushed her cellphone through the letterbox as 'collateral'.
I shouted one last time that the police were on their way, and then I made a mistake, because I called to my girlfriend (who was now on the phone to the police) and thus gave away the fact that I was not there alone.
I pushed the cellphone back through the letterbox and told them to give it up, and they both snapped.
The girl started screaming that she was going to 'shiv' (stab) my girlfriend and began to attempt to kick my door open.
My girlfriend was on the phone to the police by now and the operator kept asking her to repeat herself because the banging was so loud.
I went into the living room to find out what was happening, and my girlfriend told me that the operator kept asking her if the people were inside the apartment. I heard her saying that the banging sound was the sound of the door being kicked in and that although they weren't inside yet, they would be in a minute or two.
The operator told her that the police were on their way.
It was about this time that the man joined in. I watched through the spyhole as he instructed the woman to turn her attention to my neighbor's door while he took over on my door. He started screaming obscenities and death threats and kicking my door in.
He had a much more powerful kick and I could hear wood splintering, so I leaned against the door to stop it coming open.
This seemed to do the trick, and then what seemed like an eternity passed, me leaning against the door as hard as I could and him kicking relentlessly and shouting that he was going to stab/kill me and my girlfriend.
The police station was directly over the road from my building, so I was pretty confused as to why they hadn't turned up, as it had been about 20mins since we called. I yelled to my girlfriend to call again and find out what was happening. They operator told her again that they were on their way.
The kicking and yelling carried on for another few minutes and then they must have gotten tired because they gave up and left, with a few parting threats and a promise that they would be back.
About half an hour after they left, my intercom rang. It was the building concierge, asking if I was ok. He said he had the police with him, and I asked to speak to them. They told me that there was no point coming up to my apartment as the 'intruders' had left, and that they had followed them out of the building but subsequently lost them.
I said that I'd like to make a statement, but he told me that there was no point, as they had not actually broken into my home. I told him that the only reason they didn't get in was the fact that I was leaning against the door, and that the wood around my doorframe was badly cracked and splintered. He pretty much fobbed me off.
The next day, my neighbor knocked on my door. He told me that the man was a former friend of his, and the woman was the man's sister. He said that he had stopped being friends with them because they had started to use crack and turned into people he didn't like.
Crack certainly explains how they were behaving and the relentlessness of their attack. I shuddered to think what would have happened if they had managed to get the door open.
I'm sure many of you are now thinking that I should have stood back from the door and opened up on them with my 1911 when they got through. After all, if they had a gun the could have shot me through the door while I was leaning against it. You might call it pot luck that they didn't manage to kick the door in, because I would have had my back to them.
I'm really looking forward to hearing different views on this situation, because it was pretty traumatic for me (as you can probably imagine) and it's one of those things you turn over and over in your head.
The end result was that no harm came to me or my girlfriend, but things could so easily have turned out differently.
It's interesting to read these things and try to imagine what you would do in the same situation, but before you do, there's another angle to this story that you must take into account:
I'm in the USA now, but when this happened, I lived in 'Great' Britain. Birmingham, England to be precise.
My 1911 was deactivated, which means that it was rendered incapable of firing.
While it was legal to own, had I had used it to threaten the intruders, I would have gone to prison. If they had ignored the threat (they were on crack remember) I would have had the proverbial two pound club.
I'll keep a gun close by.
