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AV8R wrote:I usually don't think of hard-working tradesmen in the yard as being particularly threatening. I would see it as simply a reminder that it's time to water the lawn.

Someone else said that :-)

ricor wrote:Why are you leaving your gun in the car when you are at home? Also we were taught to deescalate a situation. IMHO

I would want nothing less than them to just leave without altercation. My kids give me enough stress -lol.

Seburiel wrote:Off topic, but I am curious why they need access to your property if there is a wall between yours and hers?

There is a drain some empties on to my property, apparently it was backed up and flooding the house. I need to talk to her about that pipe because it shouldn't drain on my grass. It needs to drain into the sewer.

TexasJoe wrote:

Seburiel wrote:Off topic, but I am curious why they need access to your property if there is a wall between yours and hers?

There is a drain some empties on to my property, apparently it was backed up and flooding the house. I need to talk to her about that pipe because it shouldn't drain on my grass. It needs to drain into the sewer.

What's wrong with a little extra water on your lawn?

TxRVer wrote: What's wrong with a little extra water on your lawn?

Obviously you don't live around Houston. We've had enough rain over the past month that the ground can't soak up any more - haven't been able to mow my back yard in a couple of weeks and we have standing water in a couple of places.

I doubt an AC drain would make a significant difference, but I just had to comment with the "what's wrong with a little extra water" discussion.

KBCraig wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:Just a thought. You had words with the guys and told them to leave. They said make me, so you went and got a gun.

That could easily be taken as threatening.

Trespassers (outnumbering you 2-1) refusing to leave and displaying a hostile attitude is a potentially threatening situation. Retrieving a means of self defense is not threatening, it's prudent.

Making a display of retrieving the gun could be threatening, but the trespassers obviously didn't feel threatened, since they didn't leave until the police told them to (an hour later).

And I disagree. He KNEW they were AC repairmen, according to his post.

There is no shortage of people looking for a reason to get involved in a situation or grab that gun though.

txinvestigator wrote:

KBCraig wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:Just a thought. You had words with the guys and told them to leave. They said make me, so you went and got a gun.

That could easily be taken as threatening.

Trespassers (outnumbering you 2-1) refusing to leave and displaying a hostile attitude is a potentially threatening situation. Retrieving a means of self defense is not threatening, it's prudent.

Making a display of retrieving the gun could be threatening, but the trespassers obviously didn't feel threatened, since they didn't leave until the police told them to (an hour later).

And I disagree. He KNEW they were AC repairmen, according to his post.

What are you disagreeing with? No one said he didn't know they were AC repairmen; he knew they were. He also KNEW they were trespassing, refusing to leave, and belligerent about it.

There is no shortage of people looking for a reason to get involved in a situation or grab that gun though.

You and I don't disagree on that point. The difference for me (and you, I suspect) is that we wouldn't have to retrieve a gun from the car -- we'd already be carrying one. That doesn't make us trigger-happy. It also doesn't make TexasJoe trigger-happy, it just makes him guilty of being slower to arm himself.

KBCraig wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:Just a thought. You had words with the guys and told them to leave. They said make me, so you went and got a gun.

That could easily be taken as threatening.

Trespassers (outnumbering you 2-1) refusing to leave and displaying a hostile attitude is a potentially threatening situation. Retrieving a means of self defense is not threatening, it's prudent.

Only if you stay and amp up the conversation. The "reasonable" thing to do is call police and wait. Going to retrieve a gun, takes it to a new level.

Take this to a worst-case scenario - A/C see him get gun, think they are going to get whacked, a fight ensues, one A/C man is dead. No other witnesses. Who do you think is going to jail for murder?

The only mistake I see is that they knew what you were doing in the car. Though not illegal to openly carry a weapon on your property, it was a poor move at that time for appearances sake at the least.

Renegade wrote:

KBCraig wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:Just a thought. You had words with the guys and told them to leave. They said make me, so you went and got a gun.

That could easily be taken as threatening.

Trespassers (outnumbering you 2-1) refusing to leave and displaying a hostile attitude is a potentially threatening situation. Retrieving a means of self defense is not threatening, it's prudent.

Only if you stay and amp up the conversation. The "reasonable" thing to do is call police and wait. Going to retrieve a gun, takes it to a new level.

He called the police and waited inside his house. That hardly "amps up the conversation".

You would be within your right to use force to remove them from your property. From the description deadly force was not warrented yet.

Get some pepper spray and a dog...

Yep, if you had a big, barking dog, I bet they would have asked permission to enter your yard!

txinvestigator wrote:Just a thought. You had words with the guys and told them to leave. They said make me, so you went and got a gun.

That could easily be taken as threatening. What were you going to do with the gun? You can't use Deadly Force to prevent trespassing.

You handled this poorly.

How would you have handled it?

I think you should have had a weapon in the house so that you could have retreated to call 911 and report the trespassers rather than being forced to get it from the car. Just my $.02

However, on a side note, I agree, Dallas PD takes obscene amounts of time to respond to most calls...

KRM45 wrote:You would be within your right to use force to remove them from your property. From the description deadly force was not warrented yet.

Can you find that for me in the Penal Code?