we thought we had an intruder
The alarm was set to instant, the German shepherd was in the backyard, and we were all peacefully asleep when suddenly, the burglar alarm began to squeal. We have a plan for this, we have practiced the plan.
I grabbed the Kimber .45 and Surefire flashlight. My wife jumped up and went to the alarm keypad. As I put on my glasses, I told her to disarm the alarm.
I began down the hall to clear a path to my daughter’s bedroom upstairs. I noticed my wife following me down the hall and said to her; “no, like we practiced” She replied, “got it, ok, ok” then went into the bedroom and locked the door.
We have windows only on the front and rear of the house, so I quickly made a visual scan of the front windows, no apparent Point of Entry (POE). I made my way to the stairway, where I could see the den windows and the back door, but not the garage door. Again no apparent POE, and the dog was not barking. (He was staring into the house on alert)
Stairways are a tactical challenge, but I made my way to the top. I scanned across the playroom. There are 2 windows upstairs that are accessible from the roof without using a big ladder. One of those is my daughter's, and that window is alarmed.
I could see her bed from the top of the stairs. It was empty….She has been instructed in the case of an alarm to get into the closet and wait for Daddy or the police. I made a beeline for her room while covering the non-cleared areas of the upstairs. Once in her room I called for her and gave the pre-arranged password. She came out of the closet rubbing her eyes, complaining that it was too late to practice. lol She then saw the gun and asked what was going on.
I told her to stay with me, and we made it back to the bedroom. The phone rang while I was clearing the house, and I assumed it was the alarm company. I gave the password to my wife, and she let us in the bedroom. She was still on the phone with the alarm company. (not planned, but good thinking) She told the alarm company that all was well, and hung up.
We then turned on all of the lights and did a more thorough check. There was no indication or evidence of an attempted break-in. It had been raining, and there was no indication anyone had been outside near any window or door. Just a False Alarm.
Turned out the alarm battery was going bad, and the alarm malfunctioned. Fixed now.