Learned a lesson this morning. Bump in the night.

[herrwalther]

Early this morning around 5AM I was still attempting to get my son down to sleep from the night before. He does this now and again where he is restless. During his fussing I heard a bump, because of him I couldn't hear it well so I made a mental note to keep listening for more odd noises. Heard more noises that sounded like my back door 3 times in a 5 minute span.

We have talked in length about clearing your own home in this sub forum. Generally it is unadvised unless you have been trained to do so. I am one of those people. So I told my wife to watch our son, placed her carry firearm within reach and said I would be right back. We have a plan worked out whenever I check on something, I lock her and the baby in the room and have a preset knock to reenter the room.

I grab my firearm from my bedside shelf, since my bedside safe died recently. My firearm gets all tangled up in charging cords for phones, tablets, baby monitor and a few other things. Causing items to fall off my end table onto the floor. Lesson 1 learned, clean up this area. I wait for a few more minutes with my weapon now in hand to see if the noises change in anyway. They didn't change but were still occurring, so I implement the plan with the wife and exit the bedroom.

I walk down our hallway to peer around the corner to our front door. I listen and look for movement. Nothing there. Into the kitchen and backdoor. Nothing there. Look out the big window into our side yard, no shadows. Started making my way back to the bedroom when I see an odd reflection out my front door, the storm door had blown open because it wasn't latched properly. Lesson #2: check doors and windows before bed. Rest of the night was uneventful after I found the mysterious bumping noise.

 

[beeenbag]

A false alarm can be one of the best ways to point out weak links in your preparations. Glad all is well and lessons learned.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Generally it is unadvised unless you have been trained to do so. I am one of those people.

In my reading on this subforum I've got the impression that it's unadvised unless you are a cop and have other cops backing you up.

That said, I think you waited a little longer than I would have to investigate. I would have taken the kid to mom the second time I heard the noise

 

[MedWheeler]

Trunk monkey writes:

I've got the impression that it's unadvised unless you are a cop and have other cops backing you up.

It typically is unadvised. It's also typically practiced. Human nature (go figure.)

Quite a few months back, my wife, my then-four-year old daughter, and I were entering our home one evening after an outing. At the very second I pushed open the front door, we heard a huge crashing of glass coming from the other end of the house, in the master bedroom, which has a rear-facing window. It sounded frankly like that large window (which faces a fenced backyard with locked gates) being kicked in.

I directed my wife and daughter to the opposing end of the house (play room behind garage) and made my way to the bedroom doorway, PF9 in hand. If anyone had kicked in that window, they would have still been climbing in when I arrived in the doorway.

The window was intact. A large, wall-mounted mirror in the bathroom had chosen that moment to fall, crashing into the vanity below it and shattering.

Yes, it's generally not advised to "investigate" or clear. Yes, I did do just that (like the OP, I'm trained in it, as a former LEO, but I did not have the "benefits" an on-duty LEO would have had.)

 

[David E]

I'm of the thought that it is inadvisable to house search when you KNOW someone is in or trying to enter your house....

But there are countless times, as in the OP, where there is a "funny noise" that isn't enough to dial 911, but you just can't blithely ignore it.

House clearing skills are good to have.

 

[hartcreek]

I have seen some of my local officers some of them are not qualified to be a dog catcher. I sure am NOT going to call them in to deal with a situation here in town. At the cabin the sheriff would not make it till the next day. I usually do a security sweep of the cabin tract each day that I am up there.

 

[kitsapshooter]

I do my own house clearing, if needed. Before some busy body gets their nickers in a bunch I practice it from various rooms in the house.
I will never attempt to clear a clearly broken into house if I am outside. I take a defensive position and ready my weapon and then call the very nice men and women who get paid to run into harms way. I run scenarios and plan for each one.

 

[hartcreek]

Now now kitsap you cant use that word. They are LEOs...pigs are what Flintknapper has running all over his property.

 

[*Kemosabe*]

As a former LEO I am well aware there were some "pigs" among us and I even put one of them in jail for negligent homicide.

However, the great majority of LEOs are honorable men and women and do not deserve to be referred to that way. Man up... an apology is in order.

 

[Kleanbore]

Just to eliminate any doubt, hartcreek nailed it. We do not use "pigs" to refer to law enforcement officers here.

 

[Kleanbore]

I've Done it Too, But...

I now know that I most probably got by with it only because there was no one there.

I had not realized or taken into account several things:

• that in FoF training, those who step out of defensive positions to seek out intruders almost always lose;
• that in my house, no amount of training and no amount of practice would keep me from being exposed to fire from behind or from the side, perhaps from more than one angle at once, as I move along looking for someone who may be in the house;
• that while I have the obligation to identify my target befre shooting, I cannot count on a violent criminal actor to do that, and that puts me at a distinct disadvantage;
• that professionals who have been trained to clear houses do not make it a practice to do so alone, and they invariably recommend against it; and
• that there are systems such as CCTV systems that will show me what is where without my having to put myself at risk to find out.

Thie subject comes up all the time. This is one of the best responses. Here's another. There have been hundreds of others in the last several years.

Now, we all accept that getting loved ones to safety is of the utmost priority, and the skills that one might use to "clear" a house can be very important indeed when that has to be done.

 

[PGT]

I'm of the thought that it is inadvisable to house search when you KNOW someone is in or trying to enter your house....

But there are countless times, as in the OP, where there is a "funny noise" that isn't enough to dial 911, but you just can't blithely ignore it.

House clearing skills are good to have.

Agreed.

There's only one time when I "knew" I had to be prepared to engage when someone was incessantly knocking on my front door after midnight. From the security camera and also from the window above the door, I could only see a dark-haired, dark complexion male. Luckily, my neighbor was kind enough to come across the street when he arrived home from working second shift to tell me I had left the garage door wide open and I'm also lucky he didn't see the pistol I had in hand to answer the door.

 

[herrwalther]

In my reading on this subforum I've got the impression that it's unadvised unless you are a cop and have other cops backing you up.

What is the expression? I carry a firearm because a police officer is too heavy? I take that mindset everywhere, especially in my own home. I have many friends on police forces around the country and not a single one has done as much room/house clearing as I have during the course of my military service. Discounting those who were in the military prior to police obviously.

That said, I think you waited a little longer than I would have to investigate. I would have taken the kid to mom the second time I heard the noise

Good point but I felt I had time. I use layered security, modest I admit to some elaborate setups I have heard about on here but still in place. Solid doors, reinforced kick plates and hardware, magnetic separation alarms, and two hunting dogs with very keen hearing.