Response time for a home invasion?

Sorry,

I meant visable security cameras, I was typing it on my phone.

I live on top of a small store, in a very high traffic (for our little town) area.

And while I said my house isn't a very GOOD target, I know its still a target, and thats why I am prepared.

My house was built buy a man that made even us look paranoid.

Tempered glass on the front door, three point hinge, three dead bolts (one going up, one down, and one normal)

I have two security monitors in my bedroom (non functional anymore) and intercoms between each room.

One entrance (unless you want to use a ladder, along one of the main roads in town, very high police presence) and I can see the front door from where I lay in my bedroom.

In the event of a break in, I know where my kids will be, one will be confined to her crib (one years old)

And the other will be asleep due to some very very heavy medication he takes for his autism that puts him out like a light at night.

When things go bump in the middle of the night, I have the option of grabbing the .45 on the nightstand, or the remington 870 in the corner by the door.

I don't live in a fairy tale. I know bad things can happen at any time. That's why I always carry, even while Im home, and have the shotgun loaded up next to the exit to my bedroom.

But that doesn't change the fact, my house is NOT a very good target.
 
Lol Jake that's funny..if a member of my family read this online right now. They'd think I'm on a forum under the name Jake Balam. (minus the location and home)
 
Lots of good stuff in this thread, and Yankee Doodle has it right on the money.

One thing you must prepare for, however is actually two fold...What happens when that bump in the night actually turns out to BE a bad guy? What happens when you actualy have to use whatever you have in your hand with lethal intent?

I guarantee you one thing--you might well be unprepared for the flood of emotions and physiological responses and stimuli that goes through your body. It is quite unlike anything you have EVER experienced, and it can be unnerving.

There is one thing that can minimize--although not eliminate--these responses, and that is PRACTICE. I don't just mean going to the range. Split your preparation into three phases...

1. Get to a range that will let you shoot graphically correct targets--the "picture" targets. Use that for a while.

2. Get yourself into good physical condition. The better you are, the better your body will be to handle the "dump" of internal stimulants into your system. It also helps you to handle the aftermath. Ever had an "adrenaline" headache--where your body starts burning through all the stuff dumped into your system when a REAL threat is perceived?

3. Get the following book: "In The Gravest Extreme" by Massad Ayoob. CPT Ayoob does something unique with this book...he takes you through the shoot, and into the aftermath of the shooting. Read and study.

Finally, pray that you NEVER have to deploy a firearm with lethal intent. It is something you do NOT want to go through.
 
Double naught spy said "While I agree that the "consensus" of barricading in place doesn't make much sense if that means sacrificing the kids, "going out firing with your wife behind you" is just downright moronic. When you leave your bedroom with guns blazing, where are your kids? Obviously, you don't really know. You know where they were when you went to bed, maybe, but you don't know where they are sometime later because you have been asleep in your bedroom."

Obliviously I didn't literally mean running out of my room and just shooting, haha! That is downright moronic, I was assuming we all had some sort of commonsense! And yes, I do know where my kids are seeing they are not old enough to leave their rooms. But in case of the worst case, that a BG has snatched one of them then this is where the commonsense comes in, knowing my target!

Double naught spy said "This statement says volumes and it says a lot of what many of us have to deal with. It says that the security of you and your loved ones isn't worth any extra expense, particularly if at the the end of a given period of time you don't get to keep it. You would rather keep your family less well protected than to leave an alarm for the property owner to have, and so you don't perceive an alarm system as being cost effective for your family."

Not sure what you mean, what do you have to deal with? I think it's moronic of you to assume that my family's safety is not worth the expense. Maybe it is but we just can't afford to install an alarm system. We are a one income household that has to live on a budget and an alarm system for a rent house is not a expense I can afford, nor is it an investment seeing we'll be out of the place in the next 6 months. Like many have stated before, we are looking for some secondary options (air horn, etc).
 
I think from the gun a-blazing interchange, we have a teachable moment of not spouting cliches for posturing purposes but discuss things in rational and precise terms.

Also, as mentioned - you can go to Home Depot or the like and get easily mounted alarms for doors and windows.

Run some emergency drills with the wife and and kids as you can't expect just telling them what to do once or twice will stick in an emergency.

While money may be a problem, my preachy advice is that if you are deadly serious about having the adults being a shooter in an emergency, you need more than the square range hole punching experience.
 
some gems in here. telling 911 what you're wearing is a total gem.

I think i'm going to start sleeping in my lime green commodore 64 shirt since that is such an atypical color

as for the response time at my place, it'd be very difficult to get the jump on me. I've got a HD-centric furniture layout and the entry basically funnels any intruders into a single file line.
 
some gems in here. telling 911 what you're wearing is a total gem.
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OK. Think that's overboard?

Here's the situation...

Say I'm responding to a residential burg call, or an intruder call. I arrive and wait for at least one more officer to go in with me. I'll make sure a perimeter is set, and then we enter the house. ANY movement outlines a potential target--and yes, we practice this constantly. We are NOT going to kick in the door, unless an emergency exists.

So, dispatch has the homeowner on the line who whispers--"There's someone in the house" and that's it. Let's say that the information includes the fact that the intruder has a gun.

Like I said, we practice--and we can be VERY quiet inside a home. So, we round a corner--and all we see is someone there with a gun in his or her hand--with no other information. Guess what? You'd better be dropping that gun REAL fast, BEFORE we see you. And, you'd better be trying your best to touch the ceiling with both hands and acting like a statue. Anything else can get you shot. Multiple times.

Now, suppose that we have additional information like "The caller states that their (fill in the blank here) has the top floor secured, and is guarding the stairs up to the top floor with a firearm. The person is wearing (fill in the blank), and their name is (fill in the blank). Much better.

We will then clear the rest of the home, including the basement as applicable. We will then call out to you...

"To the people upstairs; this is the police. Are you OK?" If you reply "Yes", we'll ask for names. Hopefully the dispatcher is still on the phone; we'll probably give dispatch a code word to tell to you and ONLY you, and we'll ask for the code word to tell us you're OK.

Identifying yourself is a REALLY good thing. Trust me on that.
 
I think its best to prevent any such invasion to start with. Lights, removing high shrubbery, bars on all openings, and perhaps a large dog are all preventatives. Alarm systems also deter plus they allow you to monitor windows and doors from the key pad and will wake you to an intruder instantly.

My house I thought was pretty secure as it had bars on all the windows plus the sliding glass doors. My front and rear doors were solid and dead bolted giving me a false sense of security. One day my alarm company call me while I'm at work to say my alarm is going off. I called off police since my parents live nearby and could go check for me (false alarms are 75 bucks each these days). Plus it was noon or broad daylight. My father found my door had been kicked in. My neighbor confirmed that he heard only one bang noise meaning my door opened instantly. The solid door was only as strong as the door frame which exploded violently allowing the door to swing open. Thankfully my alarm scared off the burglar before he could clean me out.

This speed of entry did make me think however. If my main line of defense, the door, could be defeated with a single kick, then I could never truly be secure or prepared in my home unless I had a weapon in my hands at all times.

My solution was to purchase and install bars for both front and back doors. Several hundred dollars for true peace of mind was a bargain.
 
But that doesn't change the fact, my house is NOT a very good target.
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All those cameras and an open steel door? Sounds ripe for the picking. You wouldn't have cameras and a steel door if you didn't have valuable stuff inside, right?

Double naught spy said "This statement says volumes and it says a lot of what many of us have to deal with. It says that the security of you and your loved ones isn't worth any extra expense, particularly if at the the end of a given period of time you don't get to keep it. You would rather keep your family less well protected than to leave an alarm for the property owner to have, and so you don't perceive an alarm system as being cost effective for your family."

Not sure what you mean, what do you have to deal with? I think it's moronic of you to assume that my family's safety is not worth the expense. Maybe it is but we just can't afford to install an alarm system. We are a one income household that has to live on a budget and an alarm system for a rent house is not a expense I can afford, nor is it an investment seeing we'll be out of the place in the next 6 months. Like many have stated before, we are looking for some secondary options (air horn, etc).
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Sorry man, but you plainly stated why you would not install an alarm system that you think you and your family need to be better protected.

I rent a house so I'm not installing one.
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So yeah, it comes across that you are willing to skimp on safety because it isn't your own property. Nothing in your post indicated anything about limited income.
 
Powderman
It appears that you are well versed, and well trained. Way to go.
Which "Job" are you on, or are you just well read?
Just wanted to wish you a safe career. It IS a jungle out there.
 
The ol password is a good technique to not getting shot by the police. Lol... when you're pretty confident its actually the police you can put the gun down but don't put it down far enough away that you can't grab it again :D:D:D


Lol... homeowner has upstairs secured, armed with a MG42 machine gun, wearing WWII german foot soldier attire, named Haans. That would be somethin :eek::D
 
some gems in here. telling 911 what you're wearing is a total gem.

OK. Think that's overboard?
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Actually, I think Sonick was being genuine. I don't know anybody that would be silly enough to think that a bad idea and be sarcastic about it. His comment of his future mode of dress may have been made tongue-in-cheek, but even it is a good idea. Lime green would be easy to spot.
 
I rent a house so I'm not installing one.
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There are wireless full featured systems. There are absolutely no wires. It's all radio signals from the sensors to the control panel or even multiple control panels. Motion sensors, alarm activated lighting, pretty much everything is possible via wireless. Probably worth looking into it.

I vouch for homesecuritystore.com. I've bought my hardwired system from them and I'll be buying the rest of the system from them as time goes on.
 
You want cheap alarms on doors? Hang bells from string off a door knob. It doesn't get any cheaper, and as a bonus you can take em to your next house! We do it for our small dogs to knock the bell to let us know when they need to go out. Free alarm is anytime you open and/or close the door you bang the hanging bell against the door and it makes enough noise to annoy the shat out of you after a few days.

Especially since you will train yourself to listen for it, cuz of the dogs. In the night if my dog goes over and hits it myself or my wife are awakened.

The potential downside is you get into the mentality of "That dang dog needs to go out." And you get up and just head for the door without paying attention to anything because you want to let the dog out and get back in bed quickly. You are essentially walking straight at the BG.

I combat this by luck that all our dogs sleep on the bed with us so if I hear the bell and notice all the dogs are on the bed, I grab my .45 and see whats shaking, sometimes our cats think they are toys. I'd like to shoot em anyway, not a cat person.
 
wireless alarms

Going on what Davey said, there are wireless alarms available. I work for Interlogix, formerly GE Security. You could get a trusted name brand (such as GE Security), high quality, wireless alarm for less than $500...most of us pay more than that for guns on a regular basis...cheap insurance as far as I'm concerned. Alarms aren't a fix-all, but we all know that. A signal gets sent to an alarm panel, the panel sends it to a monitoring station, someone at the monitoring station then dispatches police...not exactly instantaneous...but, better than nothin'.

I installed it in my home. There are other handy features such as being able to turn lights on and off, and adjust your thermostat via your smartphone. Pretty handy for cutting down energy costs when lights get left on and your thermostat isn't set properly.

PLUS, can you imagine the tactical advantage of being able to confuse the BG by turning the light on in the kitchen, and he spins around and now has his back to you as you come down the stairs?
 
The problem with bells and alarms is that they don't delay the entry from a sudden style home invasion. My burglary opened my eyes to the fact that with just a single kick someone could be standing in my home. Not enough time for me to get a gun.

So while I always recommend alarms and other warning devices I also now recommend things that delay an entry.

Slow the bad guy down so you can implement your emergency plan, secure the children, arm yourself, call police, or simply have time to wake up.

#1 Prevention (lighting and other which make your home less a target)
#2 Delay the ambush (burglar bars, door reinforcement devices etc.)
#2.5 Early warning (bells, dogs, alarms, etc.)
#3 Intel (alarm keypad {which lets you know point of entry}, perimeter camera system.)

The above combined with many of the tactics offered in the thread you are pretty much well covered.
 
There are wireless full featured systems. There are absolutely no wires. It's all radio signals from the sensors to the control panel or even multiple control panels. Motion sensors, alarm activated lighting, pretty much everything is possible via wireless. Probably worth looking into it.
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Yes, and I've been checking these out on the net. You can get quite a monitoring system for very little money, compared to just a few years ago. I'm pretty good now, where I live, but when I move, my new house is going to get a new system for far less than a grand. They're modular also, so you can always add components later.
 
First, dial 911 and put the phone on the floor. You don't have to say a word. The call is automatically traced. They WILL come.
Then, keep up a loud commentary as to what is going on, so the Police dispatcher on the other end can advise the responding cars.
In a LOUD, CLEAR voice, announce that you are armed. You really want the cops to know this. If you leave your room, say so in a loud clear voice, and describe what you are wearing. You really want the cops to know this.
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Someone who is alone may want to do something like that described above but the eprson who started the thread said his wife would be with him. It would be very unadvisable for you to call 911 while also being on alert, holding your firearm and trying to be prepared to shoot if another person is there who can call 91 for you.
 
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