You people are almost unbelievable. What a pathetic bunch of monday morning quarterbacking from a group of weekend commando wannabes.
+100 to kymasabe.
You protected your family. There is no more honorable duty required of a man. Thank goodness you, your wife, and your children are safe. I applaud you.
Let's see, we are Monday morning quarterbacking because a fellow law-abiding gun owner did several things wrong in the given situation and we would prefer to have our fellow law-abiding gun owners not make such blunders and get harmed or killed, or end up with their families harmed or killed.
leadcounsel is absolutely right in that the choices of going outside and only armed with a puny Kel-Tec .380 and a companion dog was far from the tactical or safe ideal. If folks are going to insist on going outside to investigate possible threats, then said folks should take a few extra moments (as it was not an emergency, at least not yet) and properly arm themselves.
kymasabe had a bigger gun that he could have taken outside, but he didn't decide to get that gun until AFTER checking outside and being safe and sound inside the house. He had spare mags for the Taurus, but apparently not for the Kel-Tec. He didn't take a flashlight or a phone. Heck, he didn't even bother calling the cops to report a possible attempted break-in when it happened.
Contrary to MRex21, kymasabe did not actually protect his family. He investigated a suspicious event, but the only protection that went on was by the deadbolt. If checking such events is considered to be protecting his family, then he did a less than adequate job by going outside poorly armed. Had he encountered the possible home invader(s) and gotten neutralized in the process, then just how much protection could he do?
One way in which home invaders can successfully gain entry into an occupied home is by doing something to draw the homeowner out of the house. Jiggling the doorknob very well could have been such an event. Other events include things like asking to use the phone, asking for help with a ficticious emergency, etc. As the door opens, the hopeful intruder(s) standing out of sight from the door's peephole, rush the door while it is still open.
Given how badly things can go wrong, the only reasons why this situation turned out so succesful was because the deadbolt worked and the potential intruders vacated kymasabe's property before he got outside and so there was no sort of confrontation.
One of the things I have learned through various training programs is that for most civilians, investigating attempted break-ins is best left to the cops. There is no reason to leave the safety of the interior of the home so long as all family members are safe inside. It is much easier to determine that everyone is safe inside and that no intrusions have been made into the home than it is to determine that everything is safe outside where the homeowner has little or no control.
Reporting an attempted break-in long after the event occurred does little or nothing to aid the police in tracking down the possible intruder(s).
Not calling the cops immediately after the attempted break-in was a mistake and was only reported AFTER the wife learned of other activity in the area. The significance of that mistake apparently was not realized at all. kymasabe witnessed a second suspicious event of seeing the guy run through the side yard and hop the fence and still he did not call the cops. He didn't even call the cops at that time even though he knew the cops were searching for suspects. It is only AFTER seeing the fence hopper does kymasabe decide that maybe he needed something a little more potent than the Kel-Tec and more ammo. It was only AFTER this event that he and his wife secured the kids and locked all the doors and windows. Why the doors and windows were not immediately locked after the attempted break-in is beyond me. In regard to the situation, it is a little late to be locking up when the apparent suspect is seen fleeing away. Of course, there could be others, but the time to lock up should have been immediately after the attempted entry (for those doors and windows not already locked).