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Last night my brother from North Carolina was in town visiting. Around 12:30AM he went back to my parents house where he was staying. While I was getting ready for bed I heard a loud motor being cranked over and over next door. I thought it was my neighbor having car problems so I walked out of my front door and looked around the corner of my entryway. (I can walk about 15 feet out my front door till I can be seen from the driveway), anyways, I noticed a black Porsche that looked like it was halfway in the garage, figured it was a friend of my neighbors so I went back in. As soon as I shut my door I head a loud banging noise that sounded like someone was beating in the side of my truck so I quietly went through my front door with my M&P 40 drawn and looked around the corner and realized what I had missed the first time I walked out, the Porsche wasn't in the garage it was almost in my neighbors house and the driver was trying to run off. First he ran towards my fence which I thought he was going to try to jump over then he turned around and ran off to the other side of my neighbors house. Within a few seconds I heard the sirens of the League City Police Department squad cars. I holstered my M&P and pointed to one of the officers where the driver ran off to and the other officer got out and I told him that he tried to get in my backyard and might want to check the neighbors since he ran that way, he then proceeded to tell me "why should I check the backyard" and gave me a you're a dummy look, I don't know, maybe cause I just said he tried to get back there and ran around to the other side, seemed like a logical place to hide instead of running down the street where 6 other squad cars were coming from. A little while later the guy showed back up apologizing and they ended up taking him to jail and towing the car in which they found something illegal, saw today that he was arrested for public intoxication?? . As for the neighbors house, luckily the car hit a brick pillar, a few feet over it would have done completely into the house.

After all of that I was thinking, when he ran onto my property should I have drawn on him and made him lay down until the police arrived? If he was off my property by that time and attempting to run away should I have stopped him by yelling "dont move, I have a gun... yaddy yaddy..."??

Thoughts?

No.

You don't want to deal with a panicking, intoxicated man.

Drunk driving is a misdemeanor unless someone is injured, and running a car into a house is a civil matter. If the guy owns a Porsche, it probably carries enough insurance to clean up the mess.

- Jim

Glad to here nobody was hurt. Can't imagine someone driving into my house in the middle of the night.

We had an attempted break in at my place of work last year. They broke the first glass door to our computer room, they weren't able to get all the way in because of the second glass door. I guess something spooked them after the first break. We called the cops as soon as we found out about it. When the local LEO showed up he inspected the broken glass and said "It must have been kids just doing mischief, couldn't have been a robbery attempt because all the bad guys are in jail right now." I kid you not that's exactly what he said.

I think you did great. As he was drunk and just wanted to get away he wasn't really a threat to you. And to top it off you got an apology from the rude LEO.

Mhoward asked:

After all of that I was thinking, when he ran onto my property should I have drawn on him and made him lay down until the police arrived? If he was off my property by that time and attempting to run away should I have stopped him by yelling "dont move, I have a gun... yaddy yaddy..."??

No, CH licensees are not the police. The police are the police. Repeat after me...

You handled it exactly the way you should have.

No need to put yourself into a bad situation over someone else's property. Property can be replaced or repaired.

Again.

You handled it perfectly. You were ready, but calm and in control. That's the way I hope to handle things if I am in a similar situation.

i think you handled it fine, if it were me and the guy in question continued to run at me or onto my property I would have drawn... because at that point you have no idea why that guy is running and what danger he poses. but since he turned around and went the other direction, the danger to you and your property was over so no need to anything other than point the LEO in the right direction

Oldgringo wrote:

Mhoward asked:

After all of that I was thinking, when he ran onto my property should I have drawn on him and made him lay down until the police arrived? If he was off my property by that time and attempting to run away should I have stopped him by yelling "dont move, I have a gun... yaddy yaddy..."??

No, CH licensees are not the police. The police are the police. Repeat after me...

we are NOT the police. You did great doing what you did.

I love reading stories of people thinking levelheaded with so much adrenaline through their system. You did well!

I kinda kicked myself in the butt for not noticing it the first time I went out. I know CHL's are not police but if that was my house and some guy ran his car into it I would have more than likely gone out there and stopped him. Who knows if it was just an accident or if that guy just murdered somebody, stole the car and crashed it while trying to get away. Why run of your not trying to hide anything is my thinking. My wife and I have been looking at new houses, I just took 2 off of the list that were lined up directly with a street after that incident.

Mhoward:

On an oblique note to your story (crashed car and your bro from NC):

The auto writer for an LA paper recently criticized Chevy Camaro drivers
as being yahoos, and was criticized by his readers for writing that.

His reply: "I'm a North Carolina native. It's so normal there to see a
Camaro wrapped around a telephone pole, we ought to make it
the state tree."

Yuck, Yuck. :-)

SIA

I think you should have never gone outside, leaving all the tactical advantages. I wouldn't.

I learned in my teaching years not to say you're going to do something and not do it. If I promised a penalty for a certain behavior and you then exhibit that behavior, you got said penalty. End of story.
Holding someone at gunpoint while waiting on police promises a penalty for attempting to flee (getting shot). I'm not prepared to shoot someone if I don't feel that my life or my family is in danger.
(If he were that much of a threat, I would simply shoot. Otherwise, I'm letting the LEOs go find him, but woudl be glad to do as you did and point them in the right direction.)