Possible Burglary Attempt Just happened

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Isaac-1

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SW Louisiana, not near N.O.
Just a few minutes ago I think I may have had someone probing my house as a potential burglary target. I had just finished watching the NRA press conference and was about to leave to go to work when someone started knocking LOUDLY on the front door, the dog went nuts, and I yelled loudly be right there while pulling the dog away from the door, I then went out the side door to go around front to see what was up and by the time I got there (30-45 seconds from the initial knocking no one was to be found). Note this was not gentle knocking, this was fist pounding "OPEN UP" kind of knocking.
 
Truth be told it could be any number of things......could be kids playing a prank or it could be someone who's very impatient hence they left after a few seconds. I've had this happens alot where I live, the person at the door seemingly expects someone to answer the door in just a matter of seconds but if I'm across the house it might take me a minute or more to get to the door, but by then they've already left.

As for someone knocking very loud, do you have a doorbell? If not the person might be knocking loudly to compensate for that.

Overall, you shouldn't jump to conclusions that your house was being probed for burglary......it's possible but so is a multitude of other possiblities.
 
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Any packages from Fed X or UPS......sometimes they ring my door bell and leave as well.......afraid of our GS I guess.
 
Any packages from Fed X or UPS......sometimes they ring my door bell and leave as well.......afraid of our GS I guess.
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This. Happens more often than I can count. Even the USPS mail carriers do it. They don't usually even knock or ring the bell, just leave the package and haul ass.
 
Normally I would not think anything about it, but this was SO fast leaving as I was in the same room already standing up, maybe 10 feet from the door when they started knocking, dog went nuts, I yelled threw the door "BE RIGHT THERE", went to the side door, out and around and no one there,no note, no package, and the side door is on the drive way side of the house, so if they had a vehicle it would be expected that I would have seen it pulling out even earlier. Note I live in an older house and there are no other houses on this side of the block, just vacant lots and a closed up store at the corner so really not sure what to make of it.
 
Okay, was it a probing or was it a burglary attempt? Which was it?

That somebody knocked loudly on your door and then wasn't there when you later opened the door indicates absolutely nothing nefarious. If singular, non-diagnostic events are what you are going on for the indicators of possible current or future crimes, you are going to be spending your time thinking you are in jeopardy a lot of the time.
 
Read into it what you will, I feel it was strange, loud beating on the door kind of knock then gone with no trace as soon as they heard a dog and a person inside, this was NOT someone selling girl scout cookies... Sure it could be harmless, but it just did not have that feel, it is not like they had been knocking and gave up, I responded to their knocking with the "Be right there" yell within 5 seconds, just as soon as I had the dog halfway under control.
 
Did you hear the door knob being turned .....?

If your still concerned, I would make sure to be armed as I am at home....
 
You were very likely being tested, and you failed the victim selection process. Well done. :)
 
If it was a probe attempt, it was clumsy .... but two things were established.

One, there is at least one dog that lives INSIDE the house, and
Two, there is at least one adult male in the house who does not apparently keep "regular" hours (ie your there / away and sleep / awake periods are not obvious or predictable to them.)

They'll not likely be back.
 
I am not sure about the door knob, it is a thumb button latch so the knob inside does not turn and I was a bit busy dealing with a 120 pound dog at the time. As to being armed, I live in the south and am a member of this board, and there are no children in the house, so I will let you guess the chances of me being reasonably close to arms.
 
Read into it what you will, I feel it was strange, loud beating on the door kind of knock then gone with no trace as soon as they heard a dog and a person inside
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This would have freaked me out a bit too. My guess is that your presence and the dog may have spooked a potential intruder. Good luck.
 
A 120lb dog............Yikes.........I would have gladly let him in, your dog could probably use a play mate.
Our GS is only about 100 and no one outside the home is lookin' to deal with him.
 
This exact thing has happened to me 3 times in the past year or so, always at night. Very loud beating, and even getting to the door in a matter of seconds (with a pistol in my non-visible hand), no one is outside. I assume it is kids... it definitely necessitates hauling ass after knocking, and I don't know of anyone else who would do something like that. The last time it happened I even went looking around the sides of my house to see if somebody was hiding around there, and nobody was there. Whoever it is, they have a good set of legs on them, to make it that far before I can get to the door.
 
Read into it what you will, I feel it was strange, loud beating on the door kind of knock then gone with no trace as soon as they heard a dog and a person inside.
Click to expand...

LOL, you don't know when they left your doorstep. It was 30-45 seconds after the knocking before you got there. Just because you feel strange about it does not mean you were probed. All you have is that somebody knocked on your door and and wasn't there. Maybe you were probed. Maybe it was a prank. Maybe it was somebody in need that was looking for someone to answer the door NOW. Maybe is was just some impatient person.

Just becasuse something was out of the ordinary does not mean it was nefarious. Be vigilant, but not paranoid.
 
Your right I don't know, but not only were they not at the door when I went out 30-45 seconds after yelling threw the door "BE RIGHT THERE" they were not in sight either, at normal walking speed it would take a person at least 15-20 seconds to no longer be visible from the front door on foot, probably about the same amount of time to get from the front door to the nearest place to park a car, so that leaves a very short window of time from them to leave at a normal pace. Any action that involves pounding on a door and then running away I feel should be worthy of concern, or at least caution.
 
Isaac... I can't comment on whether it was kids or something not so nice...

My advice is to make contact with your closest neighbors when you can and casually ask if they've had any similar occurrences... If you know or at least get to see your local patrolman make a point of passing the incident along. I made a point of giving this same advice to more than one resident of the city I worked in after responding to a "suspicious incident" call. Your neighbors and their willingness to look after you (and your willingness to look after them) is you best defense against prowlers, burglars, and simlar nuisances.

The problem in modern life is that many make a point of not knowing or talking to their neighbors. That sort of stuff makes life easy for bad actors (or just kids doing stupid stuff -- of course I never did anything stupid as kid.... or at least can't remember it since it was so long ago). good luck.
 
None of you guys did this when you were kids? There's even a name knocking and running off. A very politically incorrect name that I won't post here.

Since you all seem new to this whole thing, I'll give you a bit of advice: if someone knocks and there is a flaming bag on the porch when you open the door, don't stomp the flame out.
 
The other thing is my house is not in a very residential area any more (my house was built in 1902, been in my extended family since the 1930's), it is the only house on the block left on this side of the street, other side of the street is also a mix of vacant lots, church parking lot, a couple houses / small buildings now used by the church and a gas station on one corner, the next block to the south is dominated on one side of the street by a church on one side of the street and a little used old school building on the other side (now used mostly for storage and some adult education classes) the next block to the north has a couple of vancant lots an old empty house that someone half way maintains and a funeral home, across the street from them is the other large church in town.
 
+1 for the camera system. Even if it's just a "Ding-Dong-Ditch" it would be good to have the knowledge backing it up. Especially with the behavior repeating itself, you'll know if it's just one persistent jerk, or someone hoping to catch your home without you.

With an Easement going through my property, I catch the odd pedestrian taking a turn into my back yard, and it's nice to just hit rewind on the system, and see which ones are honestly lost (the instant turn around and return to the sidewalk) versus the ones with more nefarious intent (the ones who crouch next to one of my basement windows and peer in)
 
Could have been like a 'wrong number' where the caller hangs up without saying anything. They mistakenly thought your house was someone elses, they heard your voice and realized the mistake and took off instead of hanging around to explain. But your neighborhood does sound awful, I'd move.
 
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