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92f-fan wrote:maybe I'm reading this wrong but ...

If I hear something in the back yard my choices are :
Ignore it and hope it was nothing
Stay inside with my weapon and dial 911..

I cant say that Im ok with those being my only 2 options.

You might want to add:

Turn on the outside lights and look outside from inside to more accurately assess the situation. Lighting up outside while leaving inside blacked out lets you see what you need to without giving away your location or exposing your movements.

If you've got solar screens on your windows you're in even better shape because they'll mask small movements in blinds and drapes.

PappaGun wrote:

Hoi Polloi wrote:I have heard that criminals often return to the same locations...

I have always wondered if this is really true or some kind of urban legend.

I used to own some rentals.

When one of them would get broken in to, the police would always tell the tenants this and it would scare them to death.

Many times they would move out because of this fear.

I never had the same apartment burglarized twice.

During the years when I commanded a city's burglary squad dealing with around 500 burglaries a year, I saw two general circumstances where the same premises was victimized more than once:

1. Situations where the BG's had specific knowledge about the specific premises and what they would find inside.

2. Places with such glaring security weaknesses that they looked like the easiest pickin's in the neighborhood to multiple different burglars who had no prior knowledge of the premises or each other, but could spot an easy mark with the best of them. In some cases I saw the same house burglarized 2 or 3 times in the space of a couple of years, while the houses on either side remained untouched. A quick look at the property and the surrounding ones usually made it obvious why that one was targeted.

Residential burglars who don't have a specific location in mind figure any house in the same neighborhood probably has very similar contents, so any one they can get into, get stuff out of, and get a way from successfully works just fine. Think of their target selection method like electricity - it follows the path of least resistance.

SpringerFan wrote:My CHL instuctor told a story about a former student of his who was woken up in the middle of the night by someone breaking into his vehicle. He went out the back door and snuck around the side of the house with gun in hand to apprehend the guy breaking into his vehicle, only to be shot in the head and killed by the guys accomplice who was waiting on the side of the house. He left a wife and children. Moral? Do not go outside if you do not have to.

That's one of the hazards.

One of the others is that the police, who are responding to either your wife's call or a neighbor's (who may have seen or heard the BG first), may encounter you outside with your gun in hand before they find the BG. A sudden meeting like that in the dark can easily have tragic consequences for all involved, and this has happened repeatedly in the past.

In a city or suburban environment, you are in the best position to safely and effectively protect yourself and yours while leaving the bad guy with all of the tactical downsides when you stay inside, take a good defensive position, and let the police handle whatever is outside.

There is no upside in going looking for him or them in a low light, 360 degree threat environment and exposing the most effective potential defender to being easily neutralized (read "shot and killed") by a hardened street thug who will know enough to keep still and wait until you present a target he can't miss.