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I have often come across burglars who will knock on the door to see if anyone is home before breaking in. If someone comes to the door they ask for directions, wrong house etc.
Our house is on a private road. We own the end of the road and put up a gate. The only time the gate is open is during the day if we are coming and going. At night the gate is locked.
Someone knocking on our door at night SHOULD not happen.

We have light switches in the bedroom with which I can turn on the exterior flood lights.

We have glass doors. This is good. This is bad. They might see us but we will certainly see how many people are at the front door, what they have in hand, and their body language.
One day my wife left the house and I was home alone.

As she left she saw a strange minivan in the neighborhood so she called me to let me know. A few minutes later I hear the van driving down the road...
At the time Kelly my GSD was still alive. Great dog. Really miss her. The van pulls up with two women and a man. One woman gets out leaving the door open while the other two stay in the van. They parked so they could get away quickly.
Kelly is already barking at them since she heard them driving up the road before I did. :thumbsup:

Good Puppy. :laughing: I could see the woman and she could see me through the door but she could see the dog which was better.
I designed the house with a little feature. We have a front porch but we did not want railings on the porch. If the porch is a certain distance, 28 inches?, above grade you have to have a railing so I designed the porch to be below that code required level. This means our porch is about a foot below the floor of the house. Anyone standing on the porch is BELOW us while we look down on them from the house. Height has its advantages both physically and mentally.

We also have easy to open casement windows...
So the woman is on the front porch looking at me, and most importantly, a GSD that is barking at her chest level. :thumbsup: I am not inclined to open the door anyway but I really cannot open the door with Kelly disagreeing with this woman being on Kelly's porch.

Nor do I wish to open the door because she has a spray bottle with what I take to be a house hold cleaner. Quick squirt in the eyes and you would be blinded.
I cracked open the window and asked what she wanted. I was not really polite since she was trespassing. To get to the house she has to pass a gate. First Clue. Second Clue is the POSTED SIGNS at the gate. She don't get a third clue to strike out. She mumbles something about selling cleaning fluid and do I want a demonstration while she watches the GSD barking at her only three feet away with nothing holding Kelly back but some glass. :laughing: Ah No. I said a few words about trespassing at which point she got a bit mouthy with me. I can't remember what I said but she quickly got back in the van and left.
The wifey returned shortly there after and saw them exiting the neighborhood quickly. Many of my neighbors are getting up there in years and are vulnerable to either cons or violence. Either way, these three were up to no good.
Later,
Dan