Home Intruder Makes Himself At Home Before Threatening Couple

B

Bartholomew Roberts

Moderator
KSL in Utah is reporting that a local man shot a home intruder, Apparently, the intruder checked around 20 homes and vehicles in the neighborhood (police found his footprints) and then entered the unlocked back door of the home in question.

After entering, he changed out of his wet clothes and into some of the resident's clothes, made himself a snack, and then went upstairs into the bedroom of the homeowner, threatened him with a gun, and demanded the man and his wife get thier wallet and keys and drive him to an ATM. Instead, the homeowner retrieved his own gun and fatally shot the intruder.

I thought this might be an interesting discussion; because it starts from a worst-case scenario and the type of scenario people often envision in their planning - the bad guy is in the bedroom with you and making threats before you even know there is a problem. Despite starting from WAY behind the curve, the homeowner was able to come out successful.

More importantly, I thought it would offer some opportunities to talk about HOW the homeowner got so far behind the curve and the various steps he could have taken to give himself more time to react. Obviously the first one is to lock the back door; but everyone slips up now and then.

Something like motion activated night lights in the hallways or main rooms might have helped indicate they had a problem while the intruder was busy changing clothes and having a bite to eat. Dogs would be a another great alarm system in this case that would work even with the back door unlocked.
 
My first though is that it can be be beneficial to have guns in different places.

This is one of those cases where the assailant got the drop on the victims. In this situation, if you have a gun on your night stand - it might not be the best decision to try to grab it. Because the assailant actually has already told you that you're at least going to live long enough to dress and drive to an ATM.

Having an accesable gun in your closet seems to be a great option.

The story isn't clear where the homeowner retreived his gun from but anyway those were my thoughts.
 
First off the guy needs to lock his door. I believe that good quality locks, doors, and an alarm system are a good first step. These items will not absolutely keep someone out, but they do two things. First, they may cause the potential intruder to simply look for an easier target the guy apparently checked twenty homes before settling on the one with an unlocked door. Secondly, they give you a little bit of warning that something is up.
 
This is why I sleep with a holstered gun, under the blankets every night. Even if I take a nap in the recliner, a gun is on my lap. Too old to fight but can still double-tap into a life size target pretty accurately at 30 ft.
 
I teach my staff to lock the cash drawer when they are away from the desk, not because the drawer lock is all that difficult to break, but because a thief takes up time and makes noise to break through it. In the same way, we make ourselves less vulnerable when we slow down potential invaders of our home and cause them to do something that attracts the attention of residents or folks nearby. Locks, lights, barking dogs, etc. are not absolute stoppers, but they might make someone pick an easier target. If this story is correct in its details, 19 other targets were found to be unsatisfactory before the BG found this one extremely soft target that he was willing to exploit because there was no time involved in turning an unlocked doorknob and no risk of detection from the noise breaking glass or wood, a barking dog, or an alarm.

Lots of other factors come into play before our hobby of firearms.
 
Yup, best idea is to deter somebody from coming in your house in the first place. If you're willing to stash guns all over the house in case somebody breaks in, but unwilling to do anything to deter a break-in, there's something wrong with your reasoning.

There are many levels of home security. My advice is by no means complete, but the average person could decide that one of these levels is enough for him. The "basics" will be enough to deter 99.9% of walk-by criminals like the one in this story. Anybody who chooses your home specifically despite you doing everything in the "basics" has probably cased your home and/or has prior knowledge of something valuable in there he specifically wants... another reason to to brag about how many guns you own.

Basics:
Locks on your gates.
Deadbolts on all exterior doors.
ADT sign on the lawn.
Dowels in each window.
Security warning sticker on every window and door.
Doghouse, a few chewtoys, and water bowl in the backyard (even if you don't have a dog). "ZEUS" written on doghouse FTW!
Back porch motion detector.

Intermediate:
Basic motion detection system house alarm, ADT or similar.
Motion detection lights all around house.
Jack Russel Terrier.

Advanced (including all of the above):
Standalone multi-camera day/night DVR, UPS backup, online.
German Shepard.
 
I agree. Leaving doors unlocked may be fine in your neighborhood 8 or 9/10 but why take that risk? Always deadbolt and always make sure everything is locked and secured before bedtime.

It doesn't hurt that I have Achilles who barks if anybody even steps close to my property. He is a 60 lb Aussie though so he is only a detection helper.... Although I taught him the difference between invited guests and strangers so I have no idea how he would react with somebody forcibly breaking in the place while I was sleeping. I'd rather never find that one out....
 
Obviously locking the door would have been the solution. Keeping weapons accesable in various parts of the home is a good plan, if you have built in plans to access the weapon, secure the family, and have contact capabilty (cell or home phones) in those hard points.

For my own home, I center on my sons room for a defensive hard point. Im pretty confadent that to enter my home, youd have to make enough noise to wake us. I keep a carbine, cell phone, and first aide kit (on my range bag/tac vest) with the plan being, I can watch the stairs (only access to our sleeping area) while gathering my daughter and falling back to his room. At that point I can call the police and maintain control of the stairs from cover with the family, from a solid tactical advantage. I have double exterior doors on the front because of a boxed in porch, nstalled blind dead bolts at 2 points on the back door, and the basement door is dead bolted as well. None of those features will prevent or stop an intruder but would hopefully discourage one, and would deffintly slow one down, and would cause a lot of noise getting through.

Dogs are a fantastic tactical solution. They make noise, they pay attention, they wont malfunction, they dont have a safety lever, and good ones will go hunting and fishing with you anytime, and never complain about getting up early. My daughters shoot with me, but when they leave for collage, they will be takeing medium sized mutts they will pound rescue. Make a dog part of the family and treat him good, play with him, and he will defend you like a member of the family.

If you decide that multiple weapons accesable in the home is something you want to do, haveing a small to medium handgun near the front door is my second need. I like haveing something in hand but in a non presented or threatning way if you get the odd or weird nighttime knock on the door. Anwser it with a sweatshirt (my norm ask evening or home time attire) and it can be concealed while in hand should a sudden threat arise. 99 out of a hundred times it wont so no need to scare the crap out of anyone, but need need to give up an advantage either. Some of my friends stop by late for various reasons and arent suprised or offended when I recognize them, invite them in, and then put the pistol back in its hiding place.

The biggest concern there is how well the other weapons are hiden and what kind of access controls are used. Mine is a simple wooden box with a lock, and hooks for.keys underneath. Keeps my house and car keys from getting lost to lol.
 
I cannot think of any location in the world where I would go to bed without checking to make sure the doors are locked,outside of sleeping in a tent.
 
I cannot think of any location in the world where I would go to bed without checking to make sure the doors are locked,outside of sleeping in a tent.
Click to expand...

Come to Wyoming.

Years ago I replaced the doors in my house. My wife and neighbor got to laughing at me.

They discovered, about two weeks after I replaced the door that I had the locks reversed, meaning I could lock myself in, but couldn't lock my self out.
 
Rule #1 Lock the DOOR

Good that the homeowner shot the bad guy but if his door had been locked this guy would have probably just gone onto another house.

Having a dog is not a bad idea too, they can (if properly trained or just annoying) bark to alert that someone is in the home/yard.

Another security feature that is not mentioned in the article are motion trigger exterior lights. They are a MUST have for any property with a yard, be it 10ft or 10 acres.
 
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1. Lock your gates if you have them.

2. Install and turn on motion sensitive lighting outside your house at all corners to provide 360 degree lighting.

3. Install security doors on all external doors and lock them with a good deadbolt.

4. Install a good sturdy chain lock too. Slows them down a bit.

5. Install alarms on all doors and windows. Arm the alarms at night when you go to bed.

6. Get a dog or two. Doesn't matter about size as long as they'll bark at strangers. During the day it'll be to announce someone's here. At night they're your early warning system. I prefer big dogs - at least the sight of a big dog barking and growling will deter some crooks. If the sight of them doesn't the attack that follows after the display of threat will deter most of them.

7. Those who get past all that will meet me with a 12ga. in my hands and my wife several paces behind me with the AR in her hands.

8. NO guns stashed in various places in the house. The only loaded guns in the house are where I can get to them from my bed. Put a loaded gun elsewhere in the house and you're basically setting yourself up to look down the barrel of your own gun(s).
 
I went out to get the mail yesterday. There was a bill in there that bothered me and I was reading it while coming back in.

I went upstairs to do some things, about 2 hours later I come back down to find my front door wide open.

If I don't lock my front door the wind can blow it open.

It says the couple thought the door was locked.

It's one thing to say "keep your doors locked" But unless you institute a procedure where you actually go and check each door to make sure it's locked - every night, it's inevitable that you'll leave one unlocked one night. A better alternative is an electronic system that verfies that the locks are activated / or they are in the locked position. (different from monitoring whether a door or window is open or closed).
 
On the other hand the intruder was decently clothed and decently fed before he was decently shot, apologies to "Outlaw Josey Wales".
 
Mistakes are easilly made. I have a routine I follow, before I go upstairs to bed, even if anyone else is still up downstairs, I check that all doors and windows are locked. But I awoke one morning to find my sliding glass door was unlocked and with the security bar removed. Only then did I vaguely recall getting up at 0300 to let a wining dog outside to relieve an upset stomach. In my sleepy state I neglected to secure the sliding glass door before going back to bed.

Post here all you want about your plans and intentions but don't think for a second you are infallible. This is not directed at anyone, just a public service announcement in a related thread.
 
^ I agree, and I think that only some kind of automated system which monitors and alerts is going to approach 99.99% reliability.

But when I think of spending the money on a good security system versus that new pistol I want... I can't spend the money on the security system. :D
 
Jeez, how long do you have to live at a place in Utah before you establish "residency". He was there so long you can barely call him an intruder.

I don't think motion activated lights would accomplish much here. Outside the house are they really going to deter a guy who was comfortable enough to get nice and comfy and have lunch? Inside the house are they going to wake someone who isn't awakened when a complete stranger moves in?

My alarm won't work unless the doors are secured. So if I forget to lock I have no alarm.

A nice alert dog would seem like the failsafe that might've made a difference here. But if your dog is too alert you start to ignore him when he starts barking. My old dog would bark if my neighbor went out his front door across the street after dark. My wife's new dog won't bark unless someone comes in the bedroom. Then he even barks at me.
 
Probably people have as strong opinions about dogs as they do about guns, but IMO, you have to get the right breed of dog.

That woman in Texas last month had a mastiff and some little white foofy dog like a Bichon Freise.

The burglars put the mastiff in the bathroom and they put the foofy dog in the clothes washer.

My middle daughter is alergic to dogs or I'd have a German Shepherd.
 
@ Count: They do have those hypo-alergenic dogs like our President currently has. I am sure with the time and training you could make it workable. Once I have a place with a yard again, purchase #1 is going to be a German Shepard or maybe one of those Australian sheep dogs. My boss has a golden lab, you can't get within 100 feet of his house without the dog going nuts barking; he trained it from a puppy so the dog is a pretty damn good "Alert" dog.
 
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