Wifey had close call !!

[dmccarty]

...
In the OP it was pointed out that "He drove 2.5 miles from the nearest hardtop road and passed three "No Trespassing" signs." That automatically would change my initial "threat level assessment". I live only 261 feet off of a well traveled paved county road where it is not unusual for someone to pull in asking for direction, wanting permission to hunt and the guys who farm our land are down at the barn all of the time. A van or anything pulling up really doesn't mean too much to us.
...

Our house is similar. 1/2 mile from hardtop on a private road which at one point becomes our road at which point we have a gate. The gate is locked unless one of us is out and about. The gate has multiple posted signs and even open, it is, well a gate. Which should be a clue. We are then off the road by 400-500 feet.

We have a few people who drive up to the house each year. Most people are lost. A few have been up to no good.

I could have sworn I posted this previously in this thread but I can't find it...

A few years ago the wifey had left the house and after she drove through the gate, she noticed a strange minivan with three people at the neighbors. She called me since I was at home and let me know there was a strange van in the neighborhood and they might head my way. They did.

The van pulled up with three people inside, two women and a man driving. They parked so they could leave in a hurry, one of the women got out of the van leaving the door open. The engine was running. She walked to the house with a spray bottle with what looked to be Pinesol or another cleaner. The fact that these people are at the house does not make me happy. The woman came to the door which I had no intention of opening for two reasons. One my GSD was much less happy with this woman's presence than I was and two she had that spray bottle.

I cranked open a casement window that overlooks the porch and we had a chat. She was "selling" house cleaner and wanted to do a demo. Yeah right. :laughing: I mentioned the gate, trespass signs, and I told her to consider herself trespassed. Now git. Her reaction made me think that she had been in trouble with the law a time or two. In any case she got in the van and they left.

That bottle of cleaner is a handy dandy little weapon. One spritz and you would not be seeing well. Now I have had a few years of martial arts training and I doubt the three of them would be much of a physical threat to me if the weapons were limited to what they were born with. On the other hand I have been tear gassed and pepper sprayed so I know the affects of chemical weapons on me. It ain't pleasant and would certainly tipped the odds more in their favor.

Simply by staying in the house I nullified any threat from the spray bottle as well as the fact that there was three of them and only one of me. They very well could have had weapons, you never know. I was able to communicate to the woman in no uncertain terms they needed to leave while staying in the house and I certainly did not put my self in a position where I had to show a weapon. The simple showing of a weapon could get you in trouble as a previous poster wrote.

I do believe these people were up to no good. I am glad I was home not the wifey but her actions would have been similar to mine.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Another Incident at our house.

One day in 2010 I was working at home and I heard a car arriving.

Our driveway comes to the house where there is a turning circle and a parking area. The driveway also goes to the back of the house and the area we call the barn. Our house has a front door and THREE doors on the back of the house. It is pretty obvious which side of the house is the front and which is the back. During the day it is pretty hard to see INTO the house through the glass because of the energy efficient treatment of the windows/doors. The window/door glass is pretty much a one way mirror. Works out nice to watch people from inside the house.

A small truck came up the driveway and instead of parking in the circle or the parking area up front the truck went to the back of the house where we park. I watched what this guy was doing and noticed it was just him in the truck. The truck has a piece of paper on the dash but I cannot read it. He parks close to the corner of the house which blocks my view from certain windows in the house so I have to move a bit to continue watching him.

At this point he has done a few things that are a bit worrisome.
- Passed a gate
- Passed multiple trespass signs.
- Came up to the house. Many people are lost and turn around on the road and leave. He did not.
- He did not leave.
- He did not park in FRONT of the house.
- He parked at the rear of the house in a position that made it hard to see his truck from within the house.

The guy gets out of the truck and I can see he is an old dude with a clipboard and an ID around his neck. He does NOT walk to the front of the house. Instead he walked passed one set of doors while eye balling my truck that is parked out back. He walked past the second set of doors while looking at the well house and the garden. I was not going to let him walk to the third door unchallenged so I opened the first set of doors he had walked by. Opening the door scared the woo hoo out of him. I swear he scatted in his pants.

He thought nobody was home. I had watched him for a couple of minutes. He never knew I was in the house though when he walked passed the first set of doors he was within feet of me. I was able to visually search him for obvious weapons and check the truck to see how many people were in it. *** I *** had the element of surprise.

When I opened the back door, he jumped and I am sure did something in his pants, the advantage was MINE. Not his. He immediately was on the defense and I was on the offense. I asked what he was doing at the back of my house? Course I may have used some adult language to punctuate my the question. He mumbled something and I told him to git. At this point he was mentally off balance and he left. There really was not much he could say since he was caught snooping. As he was driving off, I finally stepped out of the house, the entire conversation took place with me in the house holding the door open, and I wrote down his license plate number with every intention of filing a report. When I stepped out of the door I could read the piece of paper he had on the dash....

The moron was a Census worker. Never saw him or heard from him again.

Later,
Dan

 

[Western]

Agree completely on the pepper spray, never been hit directly but been around when it was used and carried it; nasty stuff.

We had to be sprayed with OC to be certified to carry it. Foam gel is the worst, the more you touch it, the more you spread it. Very effective if used properly.

 

[JDgreen227]

Another Incident at our house.

One day in 2010 I was working at home and I heard a car arriving.

Our driveway comes to the house where there is a turning circle and a parking area. The driveway also goes to the back of the house and the area we call the barn. Our house has a front door and THREE doors on the back of the house. It is pretty obvious which side of the house is the front and which is the back. During the day it is pretty hard to see INTO the house through the glass because of the energy efficient treatment of the windows/doors. The window/door glass is pretty much a one way mirror. Works out nice to watch people from inside the house.

A small truck came up the driveway and instead of parking in the circle or the parking area up front the truck went to the back of the house where we park. I watched what this guy was doing and noticed it was just him in the truck. The truck has a piece of paper on the dash but I cannot read it. He parks close to the corner of the house which blocks my view from certain windows in the house so I have to move a bit to continue watching him.

At this point he has done a few things that are a bit worrisome.
- Passed a gate
- Passed multiple trespass signs.
- Came up to the house. Many people are lost and turn around on the road and leave. He did not.
- He did not leave.
- He did not park in FRONT of the house.
- He parked at the rear of the house in a position that made it hard to see his truck from within the house.

The guy gets out of the truck and I can see he is an old dude with a clipboard and an ID around his neck. He does NOT walk to the front of the house. Instead he walked passed one set of doors while eye balling my truck that is parked out back. He walked past the second set of doors while looking at the well house and the garden. I was not going to let him walk to the third door unchallenged so I opened the first set of doors he had walked by. Opening the door scared the woo hoo out of him. I swear he scatted in his pants.

He thought nobody was home. I had watched him for a couple of minutes. He never knew I was in the house though when he walked passed the first set of doors he was within feet of me. I was able to visually search him for obvious weapons and check the truck to see how many people were in it. *** I *** had the element of surprise.

When I opened the back door, he jumped and I am sure did something in his pants, the advantage was MINE. Not his. He immediately was on the defense and I was on the offense. I asked what he was doing at the back of my house? Course I may have used some adult language to punctuate my the question. He mumbled something and I told him to git. At this point he was mentally off balance and he left. There really was not much he could say since he was caught snooping. As he was driving off, I finally stepped out of the house, the entire conversation took place with me in the house holding the door open, and I wrote down his license plate number with every intention of filing a report. When I stepped out of the door I could read the piece of paper he had on the dash....

The moron was a Census worker. Never saw him or heard from him again.

Later,
Dan

If he was a census worker, he should have done a MUCH BETTER JOB of identification on both his vehicle and person. I would say he got what he deserved, period. Hope that experience taught him a good lesson....:thumbsup:

I have a problem with ANYBODY driving into our driveway that I don't know or if the vehicle is not clearly identified. Our local energy company sends out people to read meters every month and because I don't always recognize the driver or vehicle I have bitched to them (Consumers) to put official markings of some type on the cars and trucks.

 

[JamesHW]

The old house (mid 1800's) at our country place is right on the road like they did in the old days. When we're there we get all sorts of folks who pull in. Old acquantances seeing that the house is occupied and stop by to say hello, curious neighbors (one nice young couple wanted to see if we were interested in selling) and the occasional vendor. Never once had any problem with any visitor. Unwanted visitors have been discouraged without any threats or swear words. It seems none of the examples of "close calls" provided seem to come to the level of actual threats.

I've lived in a number of cities (NY, San Francisco, and DC) and walked some pretty mean streets and believe I have a fairly decent sense of situational awareness and have managed to get out of some close jams, so I know bad stuff can happen and bad people are about.

That said, I simply can't imagine living in a world where every van is suspicious, every spray bottle held by a stranger a weapon, every stranger a threat, every neighbors house a meth lab.

 

[brin]

That said, I simply can't imagine living in a world where every van is suspicious, every spray bottle held by a stranger a weapon, every stranger a threat, every neighbors house a meth lab.

Sadly you are living in such a world . I would suggest expect the worse and be pleasantly pleased if it does not happen. It would be wise to always be on guard and alert in this day and age. My two cents.

 

[JamesHW]

Sadly you are living in such a world . I would suggest expect the worse and be pleasantly pleased if it does not happen. It would be wise to always be on guard and alert in this day and age. My two cents.

I never said to not be alert and on guard. But a world where every visitor is challenged with sharp words and suspicion, that's your world, not mine.

 

[brin]

But a world where every visitor is challenged with sharp words and suspicion, that's your world, not mine.
JamesHW is online now Report Post Reply With Quote

Come on now, I did not say I challenged every visitor with sharp words ...now did I ? You should infer from what I did post that I am suspicious of every visitor I do not know until I am persuaded otherwise...I just want to be accurate here as to what I posted..

 

[JamesHW]

Come on now, I did not say I challenged every visitor with sharp words ...now did I ? You should infer from what I did post that I am suspicious of every visitor I do not know until I am persuaded otherwise...I just want to be accurate here as to what I posted..

I'll amend my statement by changing every visitor to every stranger. Otherwise I stand by my post.

 

[brin]

I'll amend my statement by changing every visitor to every stranger. Otherwise I stand by my post.

Fair enough and I shall stand by mine and I'll bet you are a fine fella but if you knock on my door I will still be cautious until I feel comfortable..