Need help, intruder alert!

[mrluke]

Was talking to my neighbor 2 weeks ago.
He said he was out walking his dog and when he rounded the corner one house up from me, he saw 4 black teens/20 somethings milling around. There's only 3 houses on that block and none of the owners were home.
"I startled them," he said. Three of them jumped in an old red Honda Civic, the other one got on his motorcycle, went down the street, than came back up after the Honda."
"What were they doing," I asked?
"I don't know," he said, "one was a girl and she was looking at ____'s mailbox."
"What night was that," I asked?
"Last Thursday."
"What, the 31st?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Hmmm, that was two days after I had the fight at school the inner city Phila school I work at," then I explained what happened with the fight.
Basically, me and a black kid, kid started it, I finished it!
"They were looking for the address," I said.
"Well, how could they get your address?
"Easy, I did bills sometimes at my desk, I left in such a hurry there must be something there with an address," I said, "Or...one of the ladies in the office gave it to them." "I wouldn't put it past them," I said.
"I called the cops and made a police report," he said, "Yeah they were glad to take the information."

SO...three long weeks and a concealed carry permit later, I was talking, yesterday, to another two neighbors, husband a wife.
He said, "Hey, w'as-his-name (across the street) says you're getting a gun?"
I explained about the fight, then about the incident up the street.
All of a sudden, his wife said, "They arrested them that night, in town, I remember reading about it in the paper."

Great, just great! Well, it's great they got arrested, but I wonder if they are from Philly?
Gotta get a copy of that paper.
Also, maybe a visit to the target shop is warranted.
No wonder I can't sleep.
True story.
Wondering with what I should start my gun collection: a Benelli tactical shotgun, a .357 revolver (can stop a bear), or a .40 cal with an 18 round clip?
Any tips my PA brothers can give here in this forum would be greatly appreciated by this Northern Brother.
I'd sure like to get a look at the Lansdale, PA police blogger for the week ending in June 1st. Any tips for that?
Anything at all, thinking of getting a Machetti as well.
I have 3 females in the house, it's big, and it's dark on our block.
Thank you.

[renegadephoenix]

First line of defense a Big Loud Dog. after that i prefer a Pistol/Revolver for Home Defense. they are easier to manuver inside of a house. a shotgun is good if your locking youself in the bed room but i suspect you have children and will want to get them safe.

if you should choose to use a shotgun, load it and keep it loaded! don't "Rack the Slide" to scare someone off. First if they are in your home while your sleeping they are there for you. racking the slide just tipped them off as to where your room is and gave them a heads up so they can be ready for you.

with the current Castle law you don't need to warn them before hand that your armed and ready to defend your life and your familys life

[gumbys1up]

It's really hard to argue with a Glock, either model, 17/19 with a 33 rounder sticking out of the bottom of it. Get a weapon light that MOUNT'S on the gun.

Remember nothing would be worse than to shoot your family because you weren't sure of your target...

You can run a factory flush fitting 17 rounder in it for day to day biz .. but keep the 33 rounders at the house filled w/ hollow point's for "if" you need them.

Train, Train, and train some more. Also inform your family and make a plan in case of something happening to where you have to may have to use your firearm.

Explain to them in detail about what to do if "something" happens. Seriously dude, do this..

Again mistakes cannot afford to be made when your family's life is on the line.

Simplicity of use is what makes these guns the great firearm that they are today, there's a reason like literally 70% of police forces in the US issue these pistols..they run...and run...and run.. and won't break..and run some more..

Very "Simple-Stupid" kind of design and function. You could literally learn every piece and become an Armour on these weapons in like a days time...

And that's coming from someone who doesn't even like the glock at all..

They are that good...even people that hate them (like me) can't deny that they are a seriously good pistol..

[C5pilot]

if you should choose to use a shotgun, load it and keep it loaded! don't "Rack the Slide" to scare someone off. First if they are in your home while your sleeping they are there for you. racking the slide just tipped them off as to where your room is and gave them a heads up so they can be ready for you.

with the current Castle law you don't need to warn them before hand that your armed and ready to defend your life and your familys life

I respectfully disagree with the assessment in bold type. While it sounds logical, it's not true. Our home was burglarized while we slept a few years ago. The burglar stole my wifes purse which was in clear view of our sliding glass door. He got a few bucks, a basic cell phone and girlie junk. He got her car keys but didn't take the car. He got her credit cards but never tried to use them, as far as we know.

(The next day, I took the car to the dealer and had to pay for 2 new remotes and ignition reprogramming costing us hundreds. The AT&T rep took pity on us and sent us another phone for free even though we had just upgraded her phone for free. Thank God for southern states customer service reps. She was a peach.)

The point is, sometimes it's just stupid kids. They have no idea they are risking their lives pulling a stupid stunt. He even closed the door behind him. We didn't even know what happened until my wife was ready to leave for work and couldn't find her purse.

That was my wakeup call and after long deliberation (a couple years) and a few arguments (Italian discussions) with my wife, here I am. My wife NEVER believed in "what could happen" scenarios. But she is a firm believer in history. In fact, before the burglary, she actually laughed when I cut the broom stick to put inside the sliding door track because I didn't trust the lock. Guess who didn't install my high tech security device that night.

It was funny... the detective looked at the short broom stick on the floor, immediately knew where it fit, looked at me and said something like, "How did he get past that?". I looked at my wife, she looked away, and he said, "Oh."

She checks the broom stick every night now.

[renegadephoenix]

I respectfully disagree with the assessment in bold type. While it sounds logical, it's not true. Our home was burglarized while we slept a few years ago. The burglar stole my wifes purse which was in clear view of our sliding glass door. He got a few bucks, a basic cell phone and girlie junk. He got her car keys but didn't take the car. He got her credit cards but never tried to use them, as far as we know.

(The next day, I took the car to the dealer and had to pay for 2 new remotes and ignition reprogramming costing us hundreds. The AT&T rep took pity on us and sent us another phone for free even though we had just upgraded her phone for free. Thank God for southern states customer service reps. She was a peach.)

The point is, sometimes it's just stupid kids. They have no idea they are risking their lives pulling a stupid stunt. He even closed the door behind him. We didn't even know what happened until my wife was ready to leave for work and couldn't find her purse.

That was my wakeup call and after long deliberation (a couple years) and a few arguments (Italian discussions) with my wife, here I am. My wife NEVER believed in "what could happen" scenarios. But she is a firm believer in history. In fact, before the burglary, she actually laughed when I cut the broom stick to put inside the sliding door track because I didn't trust the lock. Guess who didn't install my high tech security device that night.

It was funny... the detective looked at the short broom stick on the floor, immediately knew where it fit, looked at me and said something like, "How did he get past that?". I looked at my wife, she looked away, and he said, "Oh."

She checks the broom stick every night now.

re-read his situation, and then comment.

[cakeshooter]

If you have a big house and don't want a dog, you can get some fairly inexpensive motion detectors on Amazon.com to where they can set off a little "beep" in your bedroom if someone is moving around downstairs. Mine has three settings...a "blinking light only", a beep, and an actual alarm sound.

We're getting a dog, but a few months ago my hub had to be out of town and I was afraid I wouldn't hear if someone came in the house downstairs, and I use fans and stuff for white noise in the bedroom...so I got the motion detector thing and turned it on to "beep" each night at bedtime so I would know if anyone tried to sneak in.

Nobody did, but at least it helped me sleep knowing that I'd get a heads-up if something bad was happening.

[father-of-five]

It's good to have some non-lethal options already mentioned like a dog and motion detectors before having to consider using a lethal option.

[MostlyHarmless]

If you have a big house and don't want a dog, you can get some fairly inexpensive motion detectors on Amazon.com to where they can set off a little "beep" in your bedroom if someone is moving around downstairs. Mine has three settings...a "blinking light only", a beep, and an actual alarm sound.

We're getting a dog, but a few months ago my hub had to be out of town and I was afraid I wouldn't hear if someone came in the house downstairs, and I use fans and stuff for white noise in the bedroom...so I got the motion detector thing and turned it on to "beep" each night at bedtime so I would know if anyone tried to sneak in.

Nobody did, but at least it helped me sleep knowing that I'd get a heads-up if something bad was happening.

Is it this one?

http://www.amazon.com/Skylink-HA-434...ref=pd_cp_hi_0

I have two of those "base stations" with 4 sensors. I was able to program them so that all 4 motion detectors report to both receivers in parallel. Still playing with a PIC18F to interface one of them with a computer, but that's another story.

The problem with those cheap motion detectors is that if they are inside the house, you merely have "seconds" to wake up, get your bearings, grab your gun and be ready to actually hit your target. If they are on the outside of your house as a perimeter alert (to give you a real head start), every cat, raccoon, deer and skunk will have a great time keeping you awake all night long.

Don't waste your money on cheap stuff like that. Unless you are like me and the first thing you do is to open it up and poke around in it with a DVM or O-scope. But then you'd be like me and not really buying it as a security system, but more as another electronics experiment.


Jan

[mrluke]

Here's an interesting tidbit. My neighbor said they were mostly "milling around" between the two houses on the block.
The # of the one house was 700 the one where he say the girl was 639.
My house, around the corner is 645. They had the wrong street but I suspect they knew what number they were looking for.
Evidently they were "confused" (which no doubt they came that way and most likely will remain so for the rest of their days.)"
Even so, iot doesn't sit well with me at all.
Deer sleep in my lawn most nights, plus Fox, neighborhood cats, etc, are always around. We have 3 cats (I know but I like with 3 females),
so the detectors would be buzzing all the time.
I thought about motion lights.
The whole ting makes me sick.

[cakeshooter]

Is it this one?

http://www.amazon.com/Skylink-HA-434...ref=pd_cp_hi_0

I have two of those "base stations" with 4 sensors. I was able to program them so that all 4 motion detectors report to both receivers in parallel. Still playing with a PIC18F to interface one of them with a computer, but that's another story.

The problem with those cheap motion detectors is that if they are inside the house, you merely have "seconds" to wake up, get your bearings, grab your gun and be ready to actually hit your target. If they are on the outside of your house as a perimeter alert (to give you a real head start), every cat, raccoon, deer and skunk will have a great time keeping you awake all night long.

Don't waste your money on cheap stuff like that. Unless you are like me and the first thing you do is to open it up and poke around in it with a DVM or O-scope. But then you'd be like me and not really buying it as a security system, but more as another electronics experiment.


Jan

I do have that one...

My logic was that my bedroom is upstairs and the motion detector is downstairs to where it will "see" if anyone comes in through pretty much any opening in the lower level.

I keep a gun by my head (hidden) so basically, worst case scenerio, the beep would do two things. First, it would signal me to grab my gun and aim it at my bedroom door...two, its fairly loud and would be heard by the guy downstairs and would probably warn him to leave. And then like I said, if it did NOT warn him to leave, it would warn me to grab my gun.

I purchased it out of fear that I would wake up in the middle of the night with a bad guy hanging over my bed while my husband was away. At least with the motion detector, I get the wake up call before that happens.