Suspicious Character Last Night

[karder]

I think you did everything right. While every situation is different, when I have gotten a late night visitor, I have always answered the door. They may well be knocking to see if anyone is home. If he had actually seen your Glock, it might have been even better to keep him from coming back, but I don't think you need to second guess yourself.

[buffalo_speedway_tx]

Glad you & your family came out OK on this. I believe you handled it correctly. I agree with the comment about coming to the door to let them know someone is home is right. I had a couple of situations where peddlers have come up selling something and I make sure I have access to my gun. In this day & age you never know who is legit and who isn't. This character at your door definetly sounded like he was up to no good. I hope that the police catch them at it.

[fickman]

CodeJockey:

I live very near you. . . you should not hesitate to call the police on these matters.

Are you familiar with Fort Worth Code Blue? It is a citizen patrol group (non confrontational - eyes and ears only) that patrol their neighborhoods (on foot, bike, or car) and use a police radio to call in strange behavior. I was on it (just went inactive) and got to know several of the Neighborhood Police Officers (NPOs) for our area. They are VERY interested in citing / arresting door-to-door solicitors that do not have permits.

My NPO, Barry Sawyer, essentially said to call him anytime I have somebody going door-to-door. They will check them out and ensure they have permits from the city to be soliciting in this manner. If they don't, they get ticketed and sent away.

He has a lot of stats about the profile of some of these guys hired to go door-to-door. Obviously, there are no background checks. Some of them are hard workers trying to make ends meet, but some of them are legitimate bonafide BGs. He also had some interesting stats correlating door-to-door salespeople to burglaries of motor vehicles and a few anecdotal stories from DFW about legitimate permitted door-to-door vendors committing heinous sexual assaults or murders.

Even if you don't join Code Blue, I'd recommend getting to know your NPO and getting on his email list. They sent out crime stats for the beats in their area - including addresses - for almost everything except domestics and other "private" violations. All burglaries, BMVs, robberies, assaults, sexual assaults, etc. are on there. We're in "North Division David District" up here. Charlie District is south of I-820 to downtown.

PM if you need an email address to track down the right NPO for you.

[Excaliber]

CodeJockey, I'll tell you what I think you did right:
1. had your gun in hand
2. had the wife get her gun and phone and go to the kids room
3. stayed inside your home. you didn't go outside
4. kept the door mostly shut while talking to the guy who was up to absolutely no good what so ever.

IMO, you properly assessed the situation and were on red alert.

If there was anything you did wrong it was NOT call the cops at first opportunity, and opened the door at all.

I would have done exactly the same thing as you did though, given a similar scenario. You showed great situational awareness.

I understand why the OP went to the door and opened it. If you fail to make it known you're home, the next sound you hear may well be splintering wood as either the front or rear door is kicked in. However, opening the door exposes you to the possibility of being either confronted with a gun in the visitor's hand, or forcibly knocked back as he lunges against the door. In either case, he's then inside, you're at bad breath range with a serious threat, and your wife wouldn't know what's happening and would be in a poor position to intervene and help.

These considerations are why I strongly advocate the use of a wireless door intercom that allows you to assess the situation without giving away where you are or compromising perimeter security by opening the door. It saves lots of hassles and greatly reduces risk.

[SYMWAFA]

Sounds like you did the right thing.

Makes me kinda glad that I live in the city, and have never had to deal with a door to door solicitor (or worse). Of course, living near downtown has its own set of problems...

[Slice]

My old house in the city had the garage in front of the main entry door, When these people would come ringing the door bell the dogs would bark i would look thru peephole, see them then open garage door ( fast opening opener), go out and come up from behind them., trapping them between house and street. this was the ultimate in surprise for them, And then they would stumble their words and i told them where to get too and fast....

told one of them that this was a scam , he started with i am just trying to work man blah blah he was still yaking two houses up before i went back inside....

[Bennies]

I found out a few weeks ago there is definitely no harm in calling the police. I was returning from the grocery store in the evening when i noticed there was a man walking in front of my house wearing all black constantly looking over his shoulder. to be honest he looked very lost and very out of place. i pulled into my driveway, gave him a look and took my groceries inside. i looked out the window and he bypassed my house (probably because of the look i gave him i don't know) and was conversing with my neighbor from the street while my neighbor was in his garage. something just was not adding up in my mind. so he left and i walked across the street to talk with my neighbor who was incredibly suspicious of the guy. The man refused to say who he was selling for, refused to give his name and that of his supervisor. he also had no ID. so we retrieved the non emergency number to our sheriffs department but could not get through. at this point the man was knocking on another door and when that neighbor did not answer he started to peer through the window. that was it for me. i just dialed 911 and called the sheriff out that way.we are very on edge as there was a murder in our area right before Christmas so we do not mess around with anyone suspicious.
Well long story short the deputy arrives and was very helpful. turns out the guy must have been soliciting one of those stupid magazine subscriptions or something and did have a permit. he accused us of being racist but the deputy smacked down that argument quickly and told him he would have reacted the same way especially since it was night, he was in all black, and he didn't have an ID. The deputy told us that they had received over 40 calls on that organization selling that night alone and that he had 3 other units in an neighborhood a few miles away running them out. He also said its a 50/50 if they are legit or if they are casing. He also suggested a NO Soliciting sign which would make it trespassing automatically if someone came on your property for those purposes which i was unaware of. Might be a good idea to look into. we have one now. The parting advised the very helpful deputy gave us was that if we see anyone going door to door and they don't look right we should not hesitate to call. they will be more than happy to come out. this made me feel very comfortable with calling if it ever happens again. That is the point of my rant i guess. If the situation comes up again where someones at your door and it doesn't feel right, don't hesitate to get L.E. involved. At least in my area they are very helpful.

[KD5NRH]

I believe in good lighting...All Night.

The problem is too many people that don't understand the concept of good lighting. The guy across the street has a motion sensor floodlight on his porch pointed out, which basically means any of the neighbors looking to see why it tripped can only see bright glare, while a potential burglar get extra light to work by. He doesn't have any windows nearby, so it's not doing anything for him, either, but he still thinks it makes the house safer.

Bad guys can't see in the dark either, so given a choice between bad lighting and no lighting, I'd rather make them highlight their position with a flashlight.

[TrueFlog]

I think OP handled this very well. Calling the police just because of a knock on the door at an odd hour (without knowing who or why the person is knocking) is not likely to garner a good response from the local cops, especially if you do so often. There is such thing as being TOO CAUTIOUS. But each person has to decide that for him/herself.

If you really don't want to open the door, then just shout through the door "who is it?" really loud and see what happens. If you don't like the response, answer with this sound ... http://www.sounddogs.com/sound-effects/ ... GS__sh.mp3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Agreed. Also keep in mind that if you hadn't answered the door, he might have kicked it in or used a window. Had he done that, you'd have been forced to shoot him. By scaring him off, you avoided that outcome. I agree that opening the door does have its downside, so maybe it would've been better to just yell at him to go away...?

[The Annoyed Man]

I was thinking of installing a GAU-8 cannon in a sandbagged revetment inside my front door, facing outward, and a button activated door opener. Imagine the look on your visitor's face when you pop the door open.

I'm seeing lost of valuable applications for this setup: discouraging cable TV/security systems salesmen; discouraging door to door magazine sales; and reminding Jehovah's Witness and Mormon door knockers that they are "nearer my God to Thee" than they had realized."