How do you handle unexplained "bumps in the night"

F

FUD

Moderator
It's just before sunrise (around 4:30/5am) and everyone is asleep in bed (and I do mean EVERYONE -- for the past several weeks, the little one has developed a pattern where she'll wake up in the middle of the night {around 2 or 3am} and want to come sleep in our bed. If we don't let her, she starts to cry & Cry & CRY! Being first time parents and not liking to see her cry, we give in and let her sleep the rest of the night in our bed. If anyone has any suggestions on how to break this pattern, please let me know. Sorry for the topic veer).

As I was saying, it's before sunrise and everyone is asleep in bed when you are awaken by a rather loud noise. What do you do?

My wife and I sat up and looked at each other (the little one continued to sleep like a baby in the middle of the bed total oblivious to everything). So we sat there for several seconds trying to figure out exactly what might have happened as our brains began to wake up. We quickly concluded that since both of us were awaken, we were not dreaming or just hearing things. Additionally, since the little one was in bed right next to us, we knew that it wasn't her and not having any pets, we were a little bit confused as to what that loud noise might have been.

We sort of mentally ruled out the idea to it was an intruder as we just recently installed a house alarm and if somebody got in, the alarm would have sounded upon entry. Of course, the alarm could have malfunctioned and/or the intruder could have found a way to by-pass it or we might have just forgot to have turned it on -- we already did that a couple of times since getting it as it has not yet become a habit.

So, I grab my S&W4006 and decide to venture out of the bedroom (safe room) and see what's going on. I had a flashlight near my bed (I learned my lesson from the last time -- see "Lessons Learned -- Another FUD Story") but since the lights were on (night lights, sensor lights, etc.), I decided not the bring the flashlight along as it would give me one less thing to carry.

My wife stayed behind in the bedroom with the cordless phone (we checked to make sure if it was working) in one hand and a Browning BDA380 in the other hand. As I got to the hallway, I noticed on the alarm keypad that all zones were yellow (yellow means armed/secure, red means trouble and green means off/unarmed) -- that made me feel a little bit better and I went back to tell my wife so that could breathe a LITTLE bit easier but obviously not relax too much.

I continued walking around the house until I found the cause of the noise that we had heard ... A couple of days earlier I went to the range to shoot some targets for submission and I purchased a cleaning kit and a few other items which I brought home in a large paper bag. Since I had a bit of a mishap (see "I think I might have been shot -- but it's a flesh wound at most"), I just left the bag on the table in the study while I cleaned off my wound and then just forgot about it. It seems that somehow (maybe ghosts -- just kidding) the bag fell off the table and the crumbling of paper and the falling on the floor is the loud noise that we both heard.

Anyway, all of this got me to thinking as to how others handle unexplained bumps in the night ... Do you just ignore it? Investigate? Investiagte with a gun in hand? Call '911' and wait it out in your 'safe room' with a shotgun pointed at the door? etc.? How would you handle a situation like this or something close to it? Just curious.

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FUD
 
If it had happened in my place I would have taken the gun from the bedside safe, and gotten the flashlight out. My wife and daughter would have be moved into the walkin bedroom closet with the bedside phone taken with them. Then I would have crouched behind the bed for about a half hour. If nothing else happened I would carefully search the apartment.

Since your daughter was already with you there was no compelling reason to leave your bedroom. As the ensconced defender you have the advantage. By moving into the rest of the house you give a potential intruder the advantage. Wait a while. It is extremely unlikely that a burglar will not move for 30 minutes after coming in your house. If there are no suspicious noises after 30 minutes odds are good that there either wasn't an intruder or they left.

The only good reason to leave the safe room is to retrieve other family members and take them into the safe room. It's a compelling argument against split-plan houses that have the master bedroom separated from the other bedrooms by the width of the house.
 
The fact that we have an alarm system and it didn't go off, encouraged me to check out the rest of the house. Of course, I realize that an alarm can fail or be by-passed, which is why I took the gun with me. If this happened a month ago before we had the alarm, I would have wait -- probably not half an hour but several minutes listening for some additional noise.
 
FUD,

TBeck has a good suggestion on how to react to the noise. As far as your other problem....

Unfortunately you are going to have a few noisy nights. You need to just let your daughter cry and throw her hissy fit when she discovers that she isn't going to get moved in with you. When she starts to cry go in and talk to her, rub her back, whatever, just to let her know that you are aware of her and know that she wants to come in with you. Then go back to bed without her. Eventually she will cry herself back to sleep (this is where the noisy part comes in :) ). You both need to understand that no matter what you are not to go in there and get her (going in to tell her that you are aware of the problem but it doesn't change the situation is ok though (don't stay in there until she falls back asleep though)).

If you don't break her of this now you will have problems later. She will learn (through YOUR actions) that all she needs to do to get her way is cry and scream. It won't be fun or easy, but it is much easier to do it now than trying to do it when she is older and more set in her ways.

The most important thing though is that you and your wife project a united front to her. If she learns that one of you will give in and give her what she wants as soon as the other's back is turned, then she will be playing each of you off the other until you figure it out. Hope this helped a bit.

Greg

(BTW we were the same with our first, by the third we were pretty good at ignoring them :D )
 
Dog does the sweep while I wait with the gun.

Your little one sounds like my third grandchild. I hate to say it but you have to let them cry or they will learn that is all they have to do to get what they want. This early imprinting is IMPORTANT for a lifetime!


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Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club
68-70
 
What would I do? Hey, I live in a small apartment, in the geometric center of a metro area... I hear a bump, breaking glass, strange noise, etc., and it doesn't sound like it is coming from a neighbor's apartment (and my upstairs neighbor's a screamer - believe me, it gets old...), I grab the J. Stevens 12 gauge double, loaded with a pair of AA Featherweight skeet loads, and yell out that I'm armed, and I'm pissed off...

Actually, in practice, it didn't work that way... A bar down the street had a punk/skinhead night (I can't tell 'em apart...), and one of 'em was taking a leak in the bushes outside my bedroom window... I stuck a pump shotgun barrel up to the screen, and racked the slide... He didn't even stop whizzing - Just started running with it hanging out...
 
Personally, I do a complete sweep of the house with my .45 in Condition I. Wife remains in bedroom with phone "at the ready" with cell phone & LadySmith M642 backup. We live in the 'burbs so there is generally enough ambient light that a flashlight isn't required (although there is a MagLight on the nightstand if needed). First time we did this my wife busted out laughing as I returned to the bedroom - for some reason she found the sight of me buck naked carrying a .45 hilarious...

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"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
 
I usually let the dogs take care of it (3 of 'em)

They hear things I never hear..., and I occasionally wake up with them tearing out'ta the bedroom, raising hell all the way

So I usually listen for a minute or two, and go back to sleep if I don't hear screams of terror and pain :)

Sure beats coming to full wakefulness, then trying to get back to sleep after a search.
 
Ditto on the dogs.

This happened to me the other night around 3:30 a.m. I had just turned the light off a few minutes before and was slipping off to sleep.

The dogs perked up, started chuffing, one stood at the door to the bedroom for a few moments, and then went back to bed.

I waited a few minutes to see if there was any other noises, then got my Beretta out of the nightstand, and went downstairs.

Turned out to be a pot in the rack by the sink. I had overloaded the rack, and the pot finally slipped off into the sink.

After I shot it several times to bring it into submission, I went back to bed. :)

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
I would keep my guns locked up where they would be safe and not hurt anyone. Then call 911. Then hide. Then if I got shot, I could bleed. Then call out, "Do you have a registered gun?"

Then call Dianne Feinstein and wake her to come save me.
 
FUD,
My house sits on a terraced lot with the master bedroom nearest the downslope..all the bedrooms are clustered near that end. All the other rooms are near the other end of the hallway with the upperslope acting as a backstop for any rounds which might head in that direction. My daughter still sleeps in the bed with mom...I have a bed in there but farther away because of my snoring.
Any loud sounds...I don't check the house right away. In 'Nam I learned to wait quietly with my house weapon "on safe" with me in prone position facing down the long hallway. Both wife and daughter are alerted and they are "hunkered down" in a back up position...one with cell phone and shotgun where she can see most of the hallway and the master bathroom window for covering fire and for me to fall back if I have to, the other one is in a position to cover our retreat to the outside of the house with handgun and semi-auto .308 rifle.
You'll find that most people can't or won't wait fifteen minutes or more in a perfectly still position, whereas I have taught my family the logic and the discipline to wait in a fortified position to spring an ambush/counter. Our troops learned that under fire. We lost a few guys in combat to learn that valuable lesson.
Once I determine that no one is visible or lurking in the nearby readily defensible spots in the house, I turn on some lights from the master bedroom (master control), which backlights rooms so that you could see shadows without lighting up the master bedroom. Then I advance to the next defensible position while my wife takes my spot covering the hallway and my daughter takes my wife's position for covering fire.
Anyway, you get the idea. It's lots of laughs when you piled the kleenex tissue boxes too high in the entrance hallway closet and one or more boxes fall in the middle of the night.
Oh, I also have a security and motion detector alarm, so if you hear any loud noises that is not the alarm, you can imagine how fast we react because that means the potential BG's have defeated the alarm system and they are in your perimeter.
Paranoid? I think not if you believe that..."man is the sum of his experiences."

Life is precious and my family and I refuse to go quietly into the night.
Good Luck and God Bless.
 
i have a small but loud dog on the inside and a large, loud and aggressive to strangers dog on the outside in a fence.
now someone could kill my outside dog and then gain entry but if you can lay hands on my little house dog or come into the house without him raising the roof barking you are truly gifted. i can not even sneak in late from a night out with out him giving me away.
YAP YAP YAP YAP YAP
IT WORKS.
i have small kids in my house so my pistol is in the bedside safe a few touches of the lighted pad away. i do not retrieve it or sweep the house unless the dog really says i need to. to much chance of an accident.
strange but after a couple of hundred thousand years the best alarm is still a family dog.

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
I use two furry burgular munchers, two because one can easily be killed/incapacitated although this isnt a problem if noise/deterrent value is what you want. two buy me more time. I also have alarms on all access points, and I also have back lit outside windows, it throws shadows on the glass if anyone is between the light and the glass. While I dont have the system in place at this house you can get outside cameras and monitor from inside the house. This last is expensive, you might want to check with radio shack and just see what they have available... Depending on were Ive lived Ive gone as far as putting ironwork on all the access points keyed to the same lock, with the window coverings having an exit door with lock in case of fire. I also use plants outside of windows such as catcus and holly and will group them in areas that someone could hide in. A little trick I learned from my parents, is to locate mirrors in the house or stairwells which will allow you to see with out exposing yourself--although they work both ways, most intruders wont necessarily know were their located.....it can be as expensive as you want to make it....I also like using rock instead of grass near the house, it makes more noise when people walk on it...In elpaso I was awoke by an individual crossing my front yard with a shotgun because of the noise he made crossing the rock..it turned out he was an leo raiding a place down the road and I doubt he ever knew that I was aware of him. something else that Ive found to be of dubious value is a fence contructued in such a way as to give privacy it allows the crook privacy as well.......fubsy.....
 
Fud, Do you live in a fairly new home? Maybe some of the bumps in the night you are hearing might just be the settling of the house. Unless I hear breaking glass or the sounds of a door being forced I roll over and go back to sleep. After about 13 years my home is still settling and making noises in the night. I do have a dog who would alert me if anyone strange would enter the house. Just a thought ;)

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We preserve our freedoms by using four boxes: soap,ballot,jury, and cartridge.
Anonymous
 
There is one other thing that Ive done and while Ive never had to use it and I cant find anything wrong with the concept......I took track lighting and put floodlight's in receptacles and aimed them from within the master bedroom at the door and hallway leading to the room, the swith was near the area I would go. I figured that if the floods didnt scare whoever was there off then my target would be well lit up.....fubsy.
 
Fud,

I take unexplained noises seriously, especially at night.

You may recall my experience (posted to TFL in reply to a few threads) of being awakened by voices in my home around 0200 during the summer of ’82, figuring the TV set had been left on, walking down two levels to the family room, and discovering two crooks burglarizing my home. Briefly:
> The good news was I became outraged, chased them away -- no weapons or fists -- and the police caught them within about twenty minutes.
> The bad news was I was very stupid -- particularly assuming an innocent explanation and being entirely unprepared.

Now I would stealthfully go downstairs, armed with my .357 magnum, and confront the potential danger. I realize many will disagree with leaving the “safe room” and so forth, but that’s how I’d handle it.

Regards (and hope the graze is healing well).
 
If it were ar "for sure" inside noise, I'd grab my .45 from between the mattresses (I put it there everynight, with the grip sticking out a bit) and my wife would cross the room behind behind me, having her own .45 (produced from the same place on her side) (BTW, no children, and the guns are in the safe when no one's home). She would open the safe door, and gain cover behind it, and she has the phone. I crouch behind the bed (heavy wooden footboard at angle) and watch door. Wait 'till we feel like someone would've moved, then wait longer.
 
EricM, I owned a dog for about three decades (not the same one obviously) ever since the age of four. However, when I got married, the last dog stayed with my parents and now we have our hands full with the baby. We're planning on getting one in a couple of years just around the time that she'll be starting school.

loknload, The house was built less than a year ago.
 
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