ALMOST SHOT A MAN TONIGHT - LITERALLY

Vanity | October 6, 2004 | Jaysun

[Jaysun]

I was sitting in my study tonight when I heard something at my front door. I already knew that my family was in bed, so I retrieved my pistol before going to investigate. As I got closer to the foyer I could hear the doorknob jingling. The motion lights were on, so I was sure that someone was trying to get into the house.

I stopped at the doorway into our dining room where I had a clear view of the front door. I cocked my revolver, aimed at the door, and waited. Suddenly this swings open and this guy steps into the house. I hadn’t said anything at this point, and my heart was hammering away like a sewing machine.

I said, “Stop! What are you doing?” I didn’t yell it at him, mostly because I was too nervous to muster anything much louder than a normal tone. He looks around to see where my voice was coming from and when he saw me with a gun aimed at his face he freaked out.

He immediately dropped what looked like a gym bag and threw his hands into the air. He took his eyes off of me, ducked his head, and started bending at his knees to get into a kneeling position. I kept my aim trained on his head. He was saying, “SH*T SH*T DON’T SHOOT! OH GOD DON’T SHOOT, OH SH*T!…” So I said, “Do not move! What in the hell are you doing in my house?” At this point I was both angry and scared at the same time.

He said, “I’m here to stay with Patricia…..my Aunt Patricia…I’m from New York and I’m here for the week.” Of course, there is no Patricia here, and I told him as much. By this time, my wife had awakened and she alerted me to that fact by letting out a shrill yelp. I told her to get the phone and call the police. He continued to insist that he was here to stay with Patricia. Somewhere in there he also mentioned someone named Dan. Then it dawned on me. Dan and Patricia are my neighbors. I told Melanie to call them and ask if they were expecting company.

Dan and Patricia confirmed his story so I lowered my gun. They walked over and he finally stopped hyperventilating long enough for us to figure out what happened. Patricia had mailed him a house key in a letter a few weeks ago. At that time he wasn’t sure exactly when he’d be here, and they wanted to make sure he could get in if they were out of town (they just got back).

So he followed her directions, came to what he thought was her house, put the key in the lock, and turned the knob. Their key unlocks my door and vice versa. We have no idea how we ended up with two doorknobs with matching locks. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

Anyway, I just sat back down and I’m still somewhat shaken. He has no idea (or maybe he does) how close I came to blowing his head off when he walked in the door. His name is Kevin. He ended the night by saying, “Damn! I knew Alabama was going to be different, but I though that I’d at least get my bags unpacked before almost being killed.”

Whew. I’m still shaken. Just thought I’d share this bizarre event with you guys.

[GovernmentShrinker]

You seem like a nasty poster who is eager to jump to conclusions which are not supported by the information in the original post or subsequent posts by Jaysun, and to assign blame based on those unsupported conclusions.

[beezdotcom]

I am not interested.

And yet you still reply.

[Tribune7]

Doorknob locks are pretty poor for home security. You ought to think about getting a deadbolt.

[Old Lady]

No, I am not nasty -- this is a talk forum and I have the right to my opinions.

I was robbed once at gunpoint in rush hour in Washington, DC. My life was threatened over my purse. I take guns and gun violence seriously. If you own a gun and are ready to blow somebody away, you'd better take precautions first, like making sure you know who has keys to your property.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Good job all the way around. Thank God no innocent life was taken not only for his sake but for yours. Who would want that on their conscience. Hell even shooting a real burglar would be horrible.

[Old Lady]

I don't need to try my neighbor's lock -- when my husband and I bought our house, we had a locksmith change all the locks for security. We did not want any surprises.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I repeat, have you and your neighbors tried each other's keys in each other's doors? If not, then you don't know any more than Jaysun did, whether your neighbors' keys work in your door.

[Old Lady]

I said I was not interested IN FIGHTING.

[gimme1ibertee]

Ditto on that point. He was lucky. He should have called them ahead of time to let them know he was coming.Or maybe it was too dark to read the house numbers. Whatever the case may be,glad no one was hurt,and it had a good outcome.

[GovernmentShrinker]

You could still have locks that are the same as your neighbor's. Look, it's a big coincidence when something like this happens. Why try to make out that Jaysun would have been to blame if this had ended poorly? If the "visitor" had been drunk and incoherent, and failed to stop and put his hands up, a reasonable homeowner might have fired, because the chance that the belligerent intruder was really harmless was a lot smaller than the chance that he was a visitor aiming for a neighbor's house which very coincidentally happened to have an identically keyed lock.

[Sir Gawain]

Bad weapon of choice for home defense. A shotgun is preferable.

[beezdotcom]

I said I was not interested IN FIGHTING.

Look, you're not making a lot of sense. You claim I'm "a nasty poster who just wants to fight", but then you keep replying to me. So, either I'm not really fighting, or you really do enjoy fighting and keep coming back for more.

You're not flip-flopping, are you?

[Spirited]

"I knew Alabama was going to be different, but I though that I’d at least get my bags unpacked before almost being killed.”

Having grown up in the NY Metro region, inform him for me in no uncertain terms that he has more reason to fear being killed in his region than he has in Alabama.

At least in Alabama he is unlikely to be shot just for walking along on a street minding his own business! As it happens (mistaken or not) he was entering a home in which he had no business.

Another evidence that perhaps the public school system didn't teach him his numbers.

[donnab]

have you changed your locks yet?

[Jaysun]

Now that the adrenalin shot is gone I'll take you to task for "cocking" the revolver. While this practice may make it easier to shoot well at the range, in a high stress situation in which you would need to put more than one bullet downrange it can be catasrtophic.

I didn't think much about it. The trigger on that old pistol is anything but light, and I always practice that way (first shot single action, two more double action) in burst of three. It's just a reflex I guess.

By the way, if it hasn't already happened, the adrenalin will suddenly leave your system (I'm guessing right about now) and you will "crash" feeling as exhausted as if you just ran a marathon.

Thanks for letting me in on that. I did start feeling as weak as a kitten after a while and this helps explain it.

[Jaysun]

That situation taught me alot about a home defense situation. First off, I had a very satisfying feeling knowing that I was getting ready to dispatch some scumbag trying to break into my home.....and that was surprising to me. Second, I had always thought that I would have fired much sooner than I actually did, but I just had this nagging feeling telling me "wait for it...be sure....wait a second". I came away from that situation very much changed. Even in a situation where there is no question about what is going on, there actually is a question. Your situation and mine prove that the 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality is not neccesarily the right one. Kudos to your restraint.

My 'reasoning' was that I had all of the advantages (surprise, knew the house, gun aimed, etc.) so why not wait to see if he was alone, or whatever. My initial instinct was to remove the threat as soon as he appeared in the door. It's a learning experience to be sure.

[Jaysun]

Should have shot him in the leg for good measure

That's what my brother said, "You would have been justified. You could have hit him in the hip or something. How often do you get a chance like that?" LOL!

[Jaysun]

I am sorry but I can't imagine EVER doing something like that to my son--I don't care how much I might hate his drinking! Maybe it's all macho but no one should point a loaded gun at their own kid. Anyone with a young adult in the house should always err on the side of caution and assume the noise is the kid until facts indicate otherwise. Geesh.

applepie,
I have no idea what you're talking about. This wasn't my son but a stranger.

[Jaysun]

Just wondering, do you live in one of those cookie cutter housing developments, and do you and your neighbor have the original front door locks on your homes? If so, you might want to have a serious chat with the developer/builder. It's not that hard to ensure that houses next door to each other don't have the same locks, and it should have been done, if they were building a bunch of houses and putting in same brand/model locks at each one. It's not that uncommon for drunken guests or even residents to head into the wrong home by accident, but if the doors are locked, their keys shouldn't work on a house right next door.

I know what you mean by cookie cutter housing developments, and this isn't one of those. There's only about 12 houses in here and you have to go past a guard house (unmanned) to get in. Our houses are substantially different. Mine is limestone and his is brick. His was built about a year before mine. Nevertheless, we have determined that we used the same builder. Maybe he just made a mistake. I've already changed the locks out this morning. I also issued secret code words for my family to chant when entering the house, so as to avoid being shot by your's truly. Just kidding.

[Jaysun]

I don't believe he knew the locks on his door and his neighbor's could be opened with the same key until this incident. Have you and your next door neighbors tried each other's keys in each other's doors lately? Maybe you should go do that right now.

Hey guys,

GovernmentShrinker is correct, I didn't know about the locks until this happened. I've already changed them out - I also cleaned and reloaded my guns just in case. ;o)