Just had a scare; turned out to be nothing; critique welcome.

[JesterPgh]

As I was sitting here at the PC, I heard a loud crash up on the second floor. Not what I ever expected to hear at 2345, and my dog was right beside me, so I knew it wasn't him. My heart jumped out of my chest, my dog went nuts. I thought someone had climbed on the porch roof and through the window (no, I don't know why I thought that, but that would be the only way in up there). It was a pretty loud crash, and it turned out to be a small stack of miscellaneous items in the hallway that are in need of sorting/trashing/moving (Been hectic here for the past month). My reaction was probably wrong, so, with the background as to why, here's how it went.

Sudden crash, very loud. Dog barking. I grabbed the first 1911A1 I could get my hands on, and made for the stairs. I didn't have immediate access to my light, so I flipped the switch to the upstairs hall light from the foot of the stairs. I kept the safety on, and booger hook off the bang switch. I sliced the pie and the stairs. Halfway up, I don't know why, I said, well, probably yelled, "Freeze M-Fr, or I'll blow your F'n brains out!". Then as I continued slicing the stairs, I realized, because I could see it, that something had fallen over. I was glad it was just something falling, but I cleared the upstairs anyways. My adrenaline is still on right now.

I'm the only one in my house now, aside from my Rot; so the sound wasn't supposed to be there. Did I completely over-react to this situation?

[Mitch10mm]

I'm always carrying but if I wasn't I would have carefully made my way to my weapon and then stayed put for a few or more minutes. Alone? Bring the fight to me.

[john doe]

I would not have stopped to have pie in that situation.

Milk and Cookies maybe, but not pie.

[gold cup abuser]

Doing room clearing drills at that hour can be such an enlightening moment...

Step back for a moment and formulate a game plan for the next round. That next one might not be a drill.

You have now found the need for some of the following:

Weapon mounted light.

Good flashlight at your disposal.

Night sights.

Burglar Alarm.

Better positioning of other firearms.

Inventory of places to use as cover, concealment or barricade stance.

Better training of the dog and deploying the dog for the house clearing.


Doing a room clear drill ALONE going up stairs ALONE takes practice, training and more training. A second person is always the prefered method. Baring that option, learn how to go up a set of stairs and how to go room to room is the next option.

Muzzle up, muzzle forward, step by step til mid way up the staircase, then positon with back to wall, again muzzle up first, step at a time until your head is almost level with the flooring. The muzzle up, muzzle forward to 'pie' the area.

Then once up the stairs, check 6 then muzzle forward then check 6 as you slowly advance the floor in question. Then its open the doors from the side, pop look and pie. Then close the door behind you.

Rinse, lather repeat.

Best option would be kill the lights on the floor you are on, find a good place for concealment, and with flashilght ready, just sit back and wait.

If it is a burglary, you will hear movement.

Hit the cell phone call 911. Report burglary in progress. Describe yourself and that you are armed and with what. Leave the phone on untill the PD arrives.

Been there, done that. Still sucks.........

[GunLawyer001]

How do you know the Jamaican drug gang that broke in didn't knock over the stack of stuff, and is hiding in the closet while you surf the Web?

If you never post again,we'll start checking the newspapers.....

[dman]

I think that would have set the red flag up on anyone . How we all would of reacted is in our conditioning .

I to would have tuned the light on but waited at any cover at the bottom of the stairs and listened for a while.

Glad it weren't nothin though !

[JesterPgh]

Pretty much done how Gold Cup described it. Looking back, the good flashlight (nothing special, 90 lumen LED) was "right there", and I didn't grab it. Weapon light is next on the list, as I don't have one, and may have needed it. I have learned that while I know I should let the problem come to me, I never do. When I feel a threat, I go on the offensive. I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from doing this.

I know nobody is up there because I cleared it. Unless they have an invisibility cloak, and my dog is just worthless, there's nobody there. I won't get into my dog's training, but he'd make any handler proud. He's outstanding at his job.

I also won't go into how tools are laid out, but I will say, I just seconds before this incident had removed my gun belt, and had two 1911A1's handy. One was just quicker to get than the other.

[762xIan]

Did I completely over-react to this situation?

Nope...crap happens......crap happens to good people and there are bad people out there.

Alone? Bring the fight to me.

I agree with that....but sometimes you do stupid things.

For instance:

I was up about 2am, sitting in a dark living room, small light on and reading a book. I live pretty rural, but a neighbor did have a car stolen a few years back. The wife and kids are out of town visiting the grandparents and spending the night. I am all alone.

Out of the living room window, the motion sensor light that lights up my driveway turns on.

Talk about getting the heebie jeebies....and saying to myself "this is it, it is happening to me".

I grab my pistol and umpteen million candlepower spotlight, stealthily make my way to the door, hugging the wall and avoiding the window so I can't be seen from outside....I hit all the light switches for outside (porch, driveway and side of the house lighting) at once, burst out the door and go out to meet my fate.

In the blaze of a few million candle power and staring down the barrel of my pistol is a raccoon sitting in the driveway with his hands up and a torn open bag of trash....I wish I had a camera.

Before the wife left, she cleaned some garbage out of her car and left the bag (which had food in it) on the side of the driveway where Mr. Racoon found it.

[Daycrawler]

How you react to a bump in the night, could be the difference between Life and Death! That said I suppose you did fine, as you were the only one there. Not knowing the layout of your house its hard to tell another how to do things. Clearing a house alone is a very difficult thing to do, however having a few items can make life a little better.

As mentioned,
A good weapon mounted light.
Home Alarm.
Real window locks, NOT sash locks!
Your Dog.
Mirrors placed at angles to your advantage.
Cheap door mat carpets that ring a bell when stepped on.
A good Neighbor if you have one close enough, that you can call on for back up. I have two that I would trust to come running, ready to back me up & vice versa!

[snakeman21]

I have heard a crash in the night (I'm a night owl, usually up till 2 am or later, notice the time of this post, lol) and responded similarly. A few weeks ago, I was in the living room, about 1 am, and heard a huge crash followed by frantic movement. My heart leaped into my throat and adrenaline surged through my system. In an instant, a million things seemed to run through my brain: Is this the real deal? If so, can I handle myself in a firefight if need be? Will I keep my cool and my wits, or will I die tonight? What about my wife? She was sleeping downstairs, and that's where the noise had come from. Oh god if anything happens to her... My mind was absolutely racing.

I sat perfectly still for about 2 seconds, then sprang into action. I was carrying my 1911, so I quickly stood up and yanked it from the holster, with the safety on but with a thumb on the lever, ready to sweep it down if need be. My mind was no longer racing, I felt hyper-alert and focused. I cautiously crept through the living room, moving toward the source of the sound, which had now ceased, with the gun in a low ready position. I moved through the house quickly, but carefully, keeping in cover as well as I could. One of our cats ran past me, apparently running from the noise. I reached my in-laws bedroom and saw that the noise had woken them. My father-in-law was standing in the doorway, eyes wide. He saw me, looked at the gun, and nodded. I continued down the stairs, checking corners and clearing rooms on my way. When I discovered the source of the sound, I felt like an idiot. The cat that had run past me had knocked over and huge stack of books and an entire socket set. The frantic movement I heard must have been the terrified cat running from it's own mistake. I cleared the rest of the house just to be sure, and shared a good laugh with my FIL while trying to shake off the post-adrenaline jitters. Somehow, my wife slept through the whole thing.