Someone ringing the front door, 1:15 am

Jeremiah

Jeremiah

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Called 911 instead of answering the front door. Police showed up in 2-5 minutes. Didn't time them, but it was long enough for me to:
1. stand in the middle of the living room for a while wondering if I was paranoid and, if I wasn't, what the guy was going to do
2. go turn on the back yard light to see if he'd gone around back
3. (since he hadn't) go to the shed and pick up the machete (wife disallows guns in the house--thinks they're dangerous)
When I came back, the police were at the front door. Guy was nowhere to be found. Who knows, maybe it was nothing. Gave them his description so they can find out for themselves if it's nothing.

We have two cats and a dog, who carry on all night. Now I'm going to be up all night wondering if the noise was a cat knocking something off the table or "that guy" trying to come through the front door.
 
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Yeah. I ended up staying up all night dozing and watching DVDs in bed (wife's away on business so I can get away with crap like that) prepared to be slightly more alert if the need arose. Now I feel punchy and something of a paranoid arse. Oh, well.
 
Good to hear you're okay; and hope that's the last of it. Do you keep other self-defense items in the house (pepper spray, expandable clubs, etc.)?
 
Called 911 instead of answering the front door. SNIP
3. (since he hadn't) go to the shed and pick up the machete (wife disallows guns in the house--thinks they're dangerous)
When I came back, the police were at the front door. Guy was nowhere to be found. Who knows, maybe it was nothing. Gave them his description so they can find out for themselves if it's nothing.
Click to expand...

Glad all turned out OK. Sorry your wife "Disallows guns in the house". Explain to her she won't always be there to protect you [wink]
 
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Jeremiah said:
3. (since he hadn't) go to the shed and pick up the machete (wife disallows guns in the house--thinks they're dangerous)
Click to expand...

Jeremiah said:
Yeah. I ended up staying up all night dozing and watching DVDs in bed (wife's away on business so I can get away with crap like that)
Click to expand...

Glad your okay. That would freak me out, even more so in Dorchester.

If you want to stay up late and play with your toys, it's okay.
 
I think that it was derek going over to prove a point... [grin]

Glad that you were OK, and it's good to know that the police did get there pretty quick... But, like they said..you might want to keep some other things in the house in case you need them.
 
It's way past time for you to put the smack down on your wife. Her attitude may end up getting one of you killed. Not letting you have guns in the house?? What was she thinking?

Wow...just wow...you need to educate her.

Jeremiah said:
Called 911 instead of answering the front door. Police showed up in 2-5 minutes. Didn't time them, but it was long enough for me to:
1. stand in the middle of the living room for a while wondering if I was paranoid and, if I wasn't, what the guy was going to do
2. go turn on the back yard light to see if he'd gone around back
3. (since he hadn't) go to the shed and pick up the machete (wife disallows guns in the house--thinks they're dangerous)
When I came back, the police were at the front door. Guy was nowhere to be found. Who knows, maybe it was nothing. Gave them his description so they can find out for themselves if it's nothing.

We have two cats and a dog, who carry on all night. Now I'm going to be up all night wondering if the noise was a cat knocking something off the table or "that guy" trying to come through the front door.
Click to expand...
 
JellyFish said:
It's way past time for you to put the smack down on your wife. Her attitude may end up getting one of you killed. Not letting you have guns in the house?? What was she thinking?

Wow...just wow...you need to educate her.
Click to expand...

I had same conversation with mine. I wasn’t foolish enough to let it get beyond her first mention of me storing my guns off site. The princess gets everything she wants, but I think she found out that there are some things I was a prick about.

Tell her that to alleviate her fears, you are signing her up for home firearms safety and Refuse to be a Victim and then demand that you both go. Also let her know that you are going to upgrade your training and sign yourself up for 5 day basic handgun self defense course. I have heard that LFI I is pretty good but there are others out there.

Also get a couple of super flashlights like a SureFire and take a course on how to use it. Ya gotta strike while the iron is hot if you want to fix this situation. Upgrading your security situation is not all about guns, but you need to make sure that they are not written out of the equation.

B
 
BillO said:
Always a possibility of someone needing help.
Click to expand...

That's a major irritation about this--it probably was someone needing help*. If I had some backup I would have been ok with talking to him through the door. As it was, I didn't want to start.

*That help most likely being something I would not do for him, like let him use the phone, or the bathroom, or jump his car or something. But for most legitimate 1am needs I could have said: "I'm not going to do [X], but I'm calling the cops to help you. Hang out on the porch for a few minutes and they'll be by." Instead I was just a rude neighbor. Goes against my midwestern upbringing.
 
Jeremiah said:
That's a major irritation about this--it probably was someone needing help*. If I had some backup I would have been ok with talking to him through the door. As it was, I didn't want to start.

*That help most likely being something I would not do for him, like let him use the phone, or the bathroom, or jump his car or something. But for most legitimate 1am needs I could have said: "I'm not going to do [X], but I'm calling the cops to help you. Hang out on the porch for a few minutes and they'll be by." Instead I was just a rude neighbor. Goes against my midwestern upbringing.
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Kudos to you and your mid-western upbringing. I hope it serves you better here than did mine. Regardless, failing to respond to a knock at the door at 1:15 AM in Dorchester is not unfriendly, it's smart.
 
dwarven1 said:
Illegal unless he's a LEO.
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Interesting. A few years back I saw a followup news interview of an elderly woman who had been attacked and whose story of the attack had been shown a day or so prior. In the followup news story they showed this lady with her new collapsible baton, which she had purchased for protection against any further attacks. She could barely get the baton to expand, poor lady. Nonetheless, there was no mention of it being illegal for her to have. Hope she didn't get arrested for it; talk about adding insult to injury.
 
Jeremiah said:
3. ( (wife disallows guns in the house--thinks they're dangerous).
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You could've been gang raped. Is that what it is going to take for your wife to allow you to defend your family in the future? I can see maybe thinking a gun in the house was unnecessary in upstate Maine BUT Dorchester??[rofl] [rofl] If you can't reason with your wife........MOVE !!![cheers]
 
Mike508 said:
Interesting. A few years back I saw a followup news interview of an elderly woman who had been attacked and whose story of the attack had been shown a day or so prior. In the followup news story they showed this lady with her new collapsible baton, which she had purchased for protection against any further attacks. She could barely get the baton to expand, poor lady. Nonetheless, there was no mention of it being illegal for her to have. Hope she didn't get arrested for it; talk about adding insult to injury.
Click to expand...

Chapter 269, section 10b:

Whoever, except as provided by law, carries on his person, or carries on his person or under his control in a vehicle, any stiletto, dagger or a device or case which enables a knife with a locking blade to be drawn at a locked position, any ballistic knife, or any knife with a detachable blade capable of being propelled by any mechanism, dirk knife, any knife having a double-edged blade, or a switch knife, or any knife having an automatic spring release device by which the blade is released from the handle, having a blade of over one and one-half inches, or a slung shot, blowgun, blackjack, metallic knuckles or knuckles of any substance which could be put to the same use with the same or similar effect as metallic knuckles, nunchaku, zoobow, also known as klackers or kung fu sticks, or any similar weapon consisting of two sticks of wood, plastic or metal connected at one end by a length of rope, chain, wire or leather, a shuriken or any similar pointed starlike object intended to injure a person when thrown, or any armband, made with leather which has metallic spikes, points or studs or any similar device made from any other substance or a cestus or similar material weighted with metal or other substance and worn on the hand, or a manrikigusari or similar length of chain having weighted ends; or whoever, when arrested upon a warrant for an alleged crime, or when arrested while committing a breach or disturbance of the public peace, is armed with or has on his person, or has on his person or under his control in a vehicle, a billy or other dangerous weapon other than those herein mentioned and those mentioned in paragraph (a), shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than two and one-half years nor more than five years in the state prison, or for not less than six months nor more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction, except that, if the court finds that the defendant has not been previously convicted of a felony, he may be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars or by imprisonment for not more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction.
Click to expand...

I could easily be wrong here, but it seems to be referring to a "billy club" or baton. (I'd love to be wrong - a collapsible baton would be very easy for me to carry when I can't carry my Walther, and after spending a couple of decades swinging a (wooden) sword in the SCA, I think I've got the technique down pretty well. [smile])
 
Jeremiah said:
(wife disallows guns in the house--thinks they're dangerous)
Click to expand...

Jeremiah- I'm one of the instructors at the MRA in Woburn. That's not insanely far from Dorchester (we're in Woburn). I think it would be a really good idea for you to sign her up for our Basic Firearms Safety Class. I think that she'll come away with a much healthier attitude if she spends some time with the class and has a female instructor coaching her one-on-one.

Firearms aren't dangerous. Ignorance is.
 
My wife was the same way for a while, but if you throw common sense her way she gets it, so she came around. In fact, my next range membership will be a family one.
 
Chapter 269, section 10b:

Whoever, except as provided by law, carries on his person, or carries on his person or under his control in a vehicle, any stiletto, dagger or a device or case which enables a knife with a locking blade to be drawn at a locked position, any ballistic knife, or any knife with a detachable blade capable of being propelled by any mechanism, dirk knife, any knife having a double-edged blade, or a switch knife, or any knife having an automatic spring release device by which the blade is released from the handle, having a blade of over one and one-half inches, or a slung shot, blowgun, blackjack, metallic knuckles or knuckles of any substance which could be put to the same use with the same or similar effect as metallic knuckles, nunchaku, zoobow, also known as klackers or kung fu sticks, or any similar weapon consisting of two sticks of wood, plastic or metal connected at one end by a length of rope, chain, wire or leather, a shuriken or any similar pointed starlike object intended to injure a person when thrown, or any armband, made with leather which has metallic spikes, points or studs or any similar device made from any other substance or a cestus or similar material weighted with metal or other substance and worn on the hand, or a manrikigusari or similar length of chain having weighted ends; or whoever, when arrested upon a warrant for an alleged crime, or when arrested while committing a breach or disturbance of the public peace, is armed with or has on his person, or has on his person or under his control in a vehicle, a billy or other dangerous weapon other than those herein mentioned and those mentioned in paragraph (a), shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than two and one-half years nor more than five years in the state prison, or for not less than six months nor more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction, except that, if the court finds that the defendant has not been previously convicted of a felony, he may be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars or by imprisonment for not more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction.
Click to expand...

So unless you manage to get yourself arrested for some actual crime, this section of the law doesn't seem to apply. The blanket prohibition under all situations clearly applies only to those items listed before this more limited clause. As with anything half-way useful for personal protection, extreme discretion would be advisable in the People's Republic, particularly those parts under the strongest influence of the Stalinist factions (e.g. Meminostan).

Ken
 
KMaurer said:
Chapter 269, section 10b:



So unless you manage to get yourself arrested for some actual crime, this section of the law doesn't seem to apply. The blanket prohibition under all situations clearly applies only to those items listed before this more limited clause. As with anything half-way useful for personal protection, extreme discretion would be advisable in the People's Republic, particularly those parts under the strongest influence of the Stalinist factions (e.g. Meminostan).

Ken
Click to expand...
Even if listed under "[t]he blanket prohibition under all situations," the reference is to "[w]hoever, except as provided by law, carries on his person, or carries on his person or under his control in a vehicle, . . . ." Unless I'm mistaken on what "carries" means, this section wouldn't appear to apply to possession of an expandible in one's home. But, let's say it is illegal, how about just a plain old baseball bat. I think those are still items that exist in the realm of what is legal to have in the PRM. Such an item is nothing compared to being fully armed in the event of a home invasion, which is illegal in MA (I think); but better than having nothing to compat a perp with.
 
Someone knocking on my door at 1 AM, regardless of the reason, is not going to get a positive response unless they are family or personally-known to me.
 
Amen. My pistol is close at hand and I'm usually awake at that hour, playing World of Warcraft on my computer. The game makes me...twitchy...and somewhat...hyper...so anybody who decides to bang my door down and pull a home invasion is going to REALLY irritate me as they will be interrupting my game play! [laugh]

[mg] [mg] [mg] [mg] [mg]

Jose said:
Someone knocking on my door at 1 AM, regardless of the reason, is not going to get a positive response unless they are family or personally-known to me.
Click to expand...
 
I know exactly how you are feeling. About a year ago, while I was at work, someone broke into my second floor apartment, and stole my entire 350lb gun safe in broad daylight. Of course none of the neighbors saw anything, but my guard has been up ever since. Not only did I convince my landlord to allow me to install a security system that includes an automatic gate in the driveway leading to the parking lot at the rear of the building (at my own expense), I also bought a much larger safe and had it professionally installed directly into the floor joists in my apartment. Slealing my safe now, would lead to the third floor apartment crashing down on you! I was actually relieved to hear from the police that my guns had been used in a shooting in Lynn and were retrieved. They wouldn't release any more info about the shooting or if anyone got hurt, but they did give me a case number, and said as soon as the trial was over I could reclaim them, since they were being held as evidence. The one lesson I learned from it was to always expect the unexpected. Be prepared for the worst, and hope for the best. Good luck to you and yours, and I'm glad to hear that you're safe and everything turned out well.
 
dwarven1 said:
Illegal unless he's a LEO.
Click to expand...

Nevermind, Ken answered the question before I read all the posts.

I suppose I shoudn't get arrested any time soon. But I think a collapseable baton in my car is the least of my worries. Hell, my brass-ended cane could do more damage.

RJ
 
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Re: machete in shed

1) bad guy could have had fun with you while you wnt to get it

2) cops could have shot you as you returned to the house with it thinking you were the bad guy.

3) bad guy could have gotten into the house and had fun with your wife while you were in the shed.


You need to lay down the law and keep a gun in the house. There are things you can't compromise on.

'Compromise means NEVER having the best result"
 

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