Strange Knocks at the Door.

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Might be a perfectly reasonable reason he is there.

Maybe he is looking to serve you.
Could be a bill collector, or there to repossess your vehicle.
Might be from the assessor's office coming to see if you have done any recent remodeling.

A guy I know got an unexpected visit once from a real estate agent. A guy driving in the neighborhood saw his house and wanted to buy it and sent the agent to make an offer (he didn't sell).

Kind of suspicious that he did not wait around very long.
 
According to my wife, on each of the three occasions, he knocks then immediately leaves. Why would someone do that? :confused:

The only "legit" reason I can think of is that he thinks he's in danger. (When you drive up our driveway and reach our house, the backstop on my firing range is in plain view.) But then again... if he's scared, why does he keep coming back?

Oh, and one more thing... my wife contacted a couple neighbors. They said no one has been visited by a stranger recently.

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow.
 
Stay home. Wait outside. Tell the wife to NOT answer the door, stay upstairs, and let you know when she hears the knock (you do have a cell phone or walkie talkies, right?). Step out from around the side of the house, with the rifle in both hands but pointed down. Not at port ams. He'll crap his pants, and you can find out what his business is. If he has not specific or good reason to be there, hold him for the cops. Or run him off, your choice.
 
Call your neighbor and ask if they can help you with the encounter. Also, if this drags out any longer, you might give that partial plate and description to the sheriff and ask if they could check it out. That might get a hit. This situation is really odd. No one knocks and leaves immediately if it's important, and three in a row is certainly suspicious. If I'd have read this the other day, I'd offer to help you out. It's a bit of a drive, but I'm on vacation anyway. You could get one of those deer-cams. Motion activated and somewhat cheap. Then again for the same price you could get a camera to pump into your VCR and let it run. Tuck it into the corner of a front window and you're set.

Regardless, Good Luck.
 
FieroCDSP:

Thanks for the offer.

A buddy of mine is off work tomorrow. He was an Army Ranger. (Served three tours.) He asked if he could come over and use our firing range. I said, "Sure." He then said, "While I'm at it, I might as well come over early, like around 0830. I can back you up in case this guy turns out to be a bad guy."
 
Have you notified the police? I wouldn't talk in public about what they will see as a virtual ambush. I'd get a dog even if I had to borrow one for a few days.

I bet your wife is ready to get in some more range time now?
 
You know, I don't scare easily...not easily at all in fact. But this one has the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Glad your friend made the offer to help! God bless our friends, right?!
 
this reminds me of the time we were getting knocks on the door every few hours. same secluded driveway and nobody ever comes over that we don't know. no cars in teh driveway when we heard the knocks. it was freaky.....come to find out it was birds pecking the dried corn hanging on the front door as a halloween decoration. the corn would hit the door and sound like knocking.

good luck with everything....stay home from work tomorrow or make the wife carry that snubby around all day.
 
I think you should leave tomorrow like normal, then park somewhere out of sight and walk back to watch your house from the outside in a place where you can cut him off quickly if necessary or at least get his license plate and a better description.
With a friend helping out you could call your wife in advance and let her know that he is coming so she can get your kids and herself locked in a secure room. Or your buddy could watch and call the house and you could open the door before he even knocks and catch him off guard.
Eventhough they are sometimes not much help until after there is a need for chalk outlines, I would also call the cops as soon as this guy drives on to your property and get them involved. I actually think you should call them right now and give them what you have before anything else happens.
Probably not any help but at least it gets things on record and makes them aware of it. It just makes much more sense to involve them and absolutely no sense at all to alienate or exclude them. Even if they can't help you yet, they are also not the enemy.
Who knows... Maybe they even have a guy who can just stake your house out tomorrow morning for a few hours.
I have a friend who is a cop and I know that he would be happy just to feel like he is helping someone and doing something worthwhile.
So why not let them know?
 
He came over again. Tonight. While we were all home.

He caught me off guard. I had my sweat pants on, so I couldn't stick my 9 mm in the small of my back as I had planned to do tomorrow morning.

I met him on the porch.

He was selling magazines for children. Worked for a company called Southwestern. I interrupted him a few seconds into his spiel, and told him we were not interested. He was pretty pushy, and wanted to come in the house and discuss it. I told him "forgetit." I told him I didn't appreciate solicitors coming to our house, and his unannounced visits were causing me and my wife heartburn. He left shortly afterwards.

Very strange... we have never had this happen before.

I was hoping it would be nothing. Turns out it was. Good thing.

None-the-less, there are some lessons learned here:

1. Train wife on the use of firearms.
2. Things happen when you least expect it.
 
Glad to hear the resolution of the situation. Now, all those great ideas everyone gave you......

Go do 'em. Get a dog, get the video camera, take her to pick out a holster, etc.

And may I add one more? You and your wife go out and practice until she, and you, are totally proficient with that revolver. Doesn't help if you can't hit what you point it at, and she needs to be confident that she can hit what she aims at, every time.

Stay safe.

Springmom
 
Agree, springmom.

This incident taught me how unprepared we are.

Thank God it was nothing. But we may not be so lucky the next time.
 
The guy had an excuse but it still doesn't add up.
If I were selling magazines I would want to sell them. To do that, you would have to knock and wait to see if anyone was home. I would not knock and leave immediately. It would make more sense to knock, wait a minute, then knock again just to be sure and give anyone there time to get to the door.
I may be a little paranoid but I still have gut feeling that you should pay very close attention to this situation and still inform the cops.
And definitely, still get the wife a holster, teach her to use the AR, and practice with the revolver. Maybe even get a second handgun so you can both be armed at once.
 
Write down a complete physical description while it's fresh in your mind. If anything does hapen in the near future, or distant future you might not recall all of the details as clearly. Better to shread the paper 2 years from now than regret not annotating while fresh in memory.

Doc2005
 
Thank God it was nothing.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't lower my guard just yet. I've had door to door people try to shoulder their way in so they could scout out the layout of my home and what I have inside. It's good that you confronted him outside and in a brusque manner, but don't lower the shields just yet. I'd still call the police and complain to see if anyone else has also. You may save someone else.
 
Good points all around.

I was kind of nervous, to be honest. And I already realize I screwed up in a number of ways. As just one example, I should have walked over to his car and memorized the license plate number.

Another thing this has taught me is that a stressful/dangerous situation - in conjunction with a lack of training - is a recipe for disaster. I found myself not knowing what to say. I really need some training on how to operate when under stress.
 
Still sounds fishy

Dear Molon Labe,

Any decent crook will have a "story" cooked up so he can back out if things don't work out as he planned. I agree with those who said this still looks weird. 1. Why did he run after knocking previously? I've done some door-to-door sales in my life, and you don't sell much by the knock-and-dash method. 2. Why no visits to any neighbors?

This is all still....just plain off...

Please contact the cops and start a paper trail, give them the description of this yahoo, etc. Next time, when a guy says he's selling something, get a business card, a phone number, whatever, particularly if he's acting weird like this dope, and call the company he claims to be representing. Verify that he really does work for them.

Please keep us posted!

Best,frayluisfan
 
One thing that was odd... he really wanted in the house.

I dunno. Though it may appear this is much ado about nothing, this incident has made realize how vulnerable and poorly trained I am. I really need more training. :(
 
A row of these along the driveway, with a pile of fresh-dug dirt at the base of each might be a deterrent.
 

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I think the guy is casing you.

No magazine salesman has ever come back to the house after I pretend like no one is home, and I don't even live in a out of the way place. They move along to the next potential, they don't waste time on known dead-ends.

Be very, VERY cautious and alert.
 
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