Where protecting a child is involved
My quandry is not that I want to go search for the bad guys, lights on or off. I would never do that. If it was just me and my wife, the two of us would converge on the master closet, call the police via cell phone, stay quiet and stay put.
However I have young one(s) upstairs and we are downstairs. Its not practical to move houses right now, so let's talk about realistic suggestions. From a security perspective, we follow a tight discipline to make sure we are not surpised by a crook getting in easily. All doors, window, yard gates, etc are always locked at our home and Alarm is on instant setting night, meaning if any door or window opens or is broken the alarm goes on full immeidately.
We will probably begin practicing security drill with alarm on during the days now as another poster noted home invasions are happening more during the day. I will have to come up with a day plan, and we also have to plan for what if the alarm doesnt go off and we are caught more or less off guard.
The plan I currently have is as follows (this is worst case where its night and the children are farthest from me):
1. Invasion occurs - door opens or glass breaks, alarm goes off. Clean excrement off of myself, and then the following should be happening:
a. The child(ren) immediately go(es) under bed if alarm goes off - it will be hardest for a criminal to extract a child from under a bed, whereas a closet is easy to grab them, and doors are flimsy (considering replacing doors with solid wood doors with locks)
b. My wife is to grab the home cordless phone and head to the closet. She will respond to the call from the alarm monitoring company from master bedroom closet. If the call doesnt come, she calls the police from closet. If line is cut, her cell phone is in the closet. If cell reception is being jammed, and or if alarm didnt go off, we are nigthmare situation.
c. In any case once she is in closet, before answering call from alarm company, my wife is to retrieve the AR-15 from the gun safe in the closet, arm the weapon and make ready to fire, sit tight in the closet no matter what she hears.
d. If she hears anyone approaching the closet (which will be difficult over the alarm) she is to state, "The police are coming, I am armed with a machine gun, you picked the wrong F@#$king house." I've told her to rack the charging handle. She will have 60 shots of 62 grain soft points, so losing 1 round not a big deal. THe cartridges are handloads and are planned recipe for expansion without over penetration, yet are powerful enough to cycle the gun.
e. She is also to get out the Kimber .45 (my concealed carry gun) and to stand behind the safe door with the rifle pointed at the entry to the closet with the flashlight on, safety off, eotech on (but at that range it wont really matter).
f. She awaits me to bring the child(ren) to the closet or the police to come get her. We have a code arranged, for example I will waive a bathroom towel (not the real code, but thats an exanple), into the closet after i open the door - this is to signal it is me
2. When the alarm goes off, my actions are:
a. Remove 92FS and 3 extra mags (in a magazine holder) of Federal Hydra Shoks from a safe near me, and flashlight. Disengage safety but leave the hammer down (double action first shot)
b. Turn on the bedroom light and each light in succession as I proceed. I will have children to coordinate, I need to know EXACTLY where they are. If anyone turns off lights, that is information i gain about where they are. Sound will be deprived due to the Alarm, so this is important info.
c. Cross rooms and ascend stairs (I will not detail the layout here).
d. Enter child's room, clear the door, bathroom and closet. Back up to the bed, kneel down with gun on the main door to the room, say the code word.
e. Repeat procedure for other children if I have any (yes I know whether or not I do
, just not eager for a predator who may be reading this board to know anything more)
f. Move back downstairs sweeping the stair case and front room (s), keeping the child(ren) behind me. he/she/they are holding hands cross rooms back to the closet.
Rules of Engagement:
1. As cute as dog are, our dog(s) are on their own in this situation. They are full size (90 pound) dogs and pretty sure they will not be happy about the comotion. Either they will run to the bedroom and find my wife or they will attack and may (God help me) give their lives defending us.
2. If lights are turned off as i come back, I will consider the situaiton is worse, and I will retreat to the upstairs and await the police.
3. We have a walkie talkie in the master closet and one in upstairs so my wife and I can update each other.
4. If encounter an intruder, I will a) assume they are there for Evil, b) I have made piece that means they are there to do bodily harm to all of us, probably including murder, c) and so having thought through this in advance, my ROE is not to think when it occurs: I will just point the weapon and fire at center mass continuously until the intruder is prone on the ground and appears mortally wounded. My assumption is if they have entered my locked home, set off the alarm and are still there, they are not a neighborhood kid or a drunk neighbor. My immedate neighbors know we are armed, and we have discussed my plan in general, so they will not be entering the house. So anyone I encounter that I get the drop on is going down like a rabid animal.
5. I will not take chances negotiating their surrender or warning because I do not know how many there are or what their tactics or skills are.
6. If I hear an altercation going on between bad guys and my wife while en route with the child(ren), I release the child(ren) through the front door and he/she/they are to go to the neighbors house directly across the street. I will watch him/her/them run across. I cannot escort because I could become locked out of the house, leaving my wife in a hostage situation. Its a 50 foot run, and the neighborhood will be on high alert by this time because the alarm is VERY loud. I cannot leave my back turned or abandon my wife, so I have to trust my neighbor. We've discussed this.
7. He is also to call the police and let them know a home invasion is underway, describe me and my wife, notify the police we are armed and that my sending over the child(ren) is a bad bad bad sign.
8. Under no circumstances is my wife to leave the security of the closet to assist me, and, while I have the child(ren) in escort, I am not to come to her assistance.
9. Upon reaching the closet with the child(ren) we will all stay put, and I will retrieve the Weatherby SA-459 12 ga auto (with red dot sight and 7+1 mag extension) from the safe. We will await the police.
10. The child(ren) go behind the safe door w my wife.
11 If I have had to send the child(ren) across the street, this means an altercation was in progress. I will attempt to protect/rescue my wife at all costs, and willcall the neighbor via cell phone to make sure the children are safe - if we have presence of mind to do so
12 Once I have regained control, if we reach the neighbor, we stay put in the closet and await the police.
13 If we do not reach the neighbor, I haven't got that figured out yet.
Option 1 is to exit the house and go to the neighbor's house, but I don't like the idea of the police arriving at 2:30 AM w my wife and I both armed with long guns and pistols, crossing the street, covering each other during the transit of the street, and my child(ren) possibly still outside. Too much risk.
Option 2 is to stay put in the closet, and to keep calling the neighbor, keep calling the police
Option 3 is to clear the master bathroom and master bedroom, enlarging our defended area and then stay put until police arrive, and to keep calling the neighbor
There is no option where we go clearing the whole house and hunting for bad guys. Again we have no idea what their tactics and training are, whether they may have former military training, and so forth.
Which options above sound reasonable? Any other gaping holes in the plan?