mic646

Early this morning about 3:00 am our dogs that were inside started to bark like crazy. My wife got up to see what they were barking at and came running back to the bedroom saying that someone was in our back yard which is enclosed with a 5 foot wooden fence. By the time I got out of bed he was on our back deck. Standing in my shorts I ran back to the bedroom and threw on a shirt and some pants and grabbed my pistol. By the time I got back to the patio he was over the fence and heading to the side, meanwhile my wife is on the phone with the police. I ran out the front door and seen the guy walking away, he was about 20 yards away. I yelled at him what the heck he was doing and he said he was just trying to get home. Knowing that the police were on their way here I didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to be outside with a gun in my hand when they showed up. They might take me for the person we were calling about. So I ran back in the house, put the pistol down and grabbed my cell phone. By the time I got out he was gone. I ran for about a block in the direction he was going but did not find him. They had about 3 patrol cars here in just a matter of a few minutes and searched a few block radius, but he was gone.

I don’t know what he was doing or planning to do but talk about freaking us out. Could not even get back to sleep afterwards. The only reason I took my pistol was for my protection. I had no intention in using it to stop him or to threaten him with it, unless he came after me. In fact he probably didn’t even see it as I had it to my side. Sometimes our dogs (labs) are a pain in the rear, but if we didn’t have them who knows what would have happened.

I just thought I would share this with you all as this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to us.

s cesnick

Chalk another one up to the trusty watch dog.. That is why I will lways have atleast one dog ( mine are labs also. ) it is amazing how they can tell the difference between normal night time sounds and a low life snooping around where he shouldn't be.
Good to hear everyone in your household is safe. You should go buy a big bag of "chewies" for your dogs as a thank you.

Nate-03 D

Yea that is scary, glad to hear no one got harmed and nothing was taken(or was there)?

Are you in a heavily populated city area? I hated living in California, Sacramento. It was way to crowded and the crime rate was starting to get way out of hand. I love having 5 acres of land now, hardly any one around.

dodgezilla04

where in washington mic?

justagoodolboy

I have had that happen before. Its scary thinking about if you are ready to use your firearm to protect yourself & family. This is the latest happenings in my area. The old man shot this guy for trashing his car. I don't think shooting the guy for that was necessary, but all the details on the case have not come out yet. Sad thing is, look at the headlines, if it had been at night, he would have been justified.

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/...er_charge.html

mic646

Good ol Eastern Washington - Cheney

dodgezilla04

wow. sorry fella.
lock the doors and windows. keep the dogs around. feed them well. best of luck.

Hoss

Just out of curiosity, what would you have done if you HAD found him?? Generally speaking, I don't think it's a good idea to chase after someone. Let the police do that.

Must have been scary though. Good thing you had dogs, otherwise he may have been IN your house before you ever knew what was going on.

Similar story:

Our old house had an alarm system that would let you bypass the motion sensor at night and set only the perimeter alarm (windows & doors). This way you could walk around your house at night without setting the alarm off, but if a door or window was opened it went off instantly.

Our bedroom was situated so that my wife's "side" of the bed was closest to the master bathroom and closet, and also on the same side as the door into our bedroom.

One night about 2:00 in the morning the alarm went off. Of course, it's VERY loud. I BOLTED up, practically PUSHED my wife out of bed as I told to get in our bathroom and lock the door, and then pulled my Glock from the quick access safe bolted to my nightstand while I took cover behind my bed with my pistol aimed at the bedroom door. I crouched there, waiting, for what SEEMED like eternity...just waiting for a silhouette to come into the doorway. In reality, I probably only waited a couple of minutes. Eventually, I slowly got up and walked toward the doorway, gun still aimed and ready. The keypad for the alarm was in our bedroom so I shut it off with one hand while keeping the gun pointed towards the door.

I rounded the corner out of our bedroom into the living room to see the back door standing open. I slowly went through the house turning every single light on and checking all the other doors and windows. Nothing. Finally, I went to the back door. It had been raining so it was very wet outside. I looked down at the floor (hardwood) and there were no wet footprints on the floor and no evidence that anyone had been in the back yard except our dogs. The doorknob on the door was still locked. The only thing I could figure was that I had locked the door that night but not checked to see that it was fully latched. Apparently the wind blew it open when the thunderstorm blew through.

Sure had my heart pounding. I couldn't go to sleep for a full hour after that.

mic646

The town that we live in has about 7500 people and it is a college town as well. We left Seattle 18 years ago for small city life. Not a lot of serious crimes here, although I feel what happed to us was serious. Over all it’s a pretty good town to raise a family. Spokane is about 21 miles from us and I think it is the 3rd largest city in the state. They have their share of major crime there.

Nothing was taken except for the sleep we lost last night.

Rollin' Smoke

really glad knowone was harmed or any property was damaged/taken.......I have thought about what I would do if that where to happen to my family. I have the full intentions on letting whomever is trying to break-in my house get in.....after that they better say some real quick prayers because thats the last thing they are going to do and thats a garuantee! If they have broken in the house then it is justified around here

mic646

My plan was to keep my distance to see where he was going and use my cell phone to call 911 with the location. No way was I going to do a face to face with someone like this, but I needed to do something until the police showed up.

Box5

Dogs are the best security alarm you could have. I always play games with my dogs, i'll throw a stick into the woods then go hide somewhere else where no person could track, and they'll find me in a matter of a minute just because there so aware of everything.

spunbearing

This has happened to me several times. I just open the back door and let my 3 pitbulls out. Amazing how fast some people can run. I'm sure that a few of them have broken olympic records. On a serious note my ex girlfriend and her 16 year old helper were cleaning a vacant apt. several years ago and called me on my cellphone saying that the front door was kicked in by 3 thugs who were still in the apt. The girls had locked themselves behind a bedroom door and a bathroom door upstairs and they heard someone trying to kick in the bedroom door. I was about 10 blocks away and showed up with Jasmine my 68 lb. pitbull ( now 17 years old). I opened the front door and sent Jasmine in the front. I heard scrambling inside and I heard a noise at the back fence. When I sent her in the front they ran screaming out the back and jumped the fence. The k-9 officer that showed up to take the report got a good chuckle. He said " yeah these guys are always so tough until a dog shows up". It's true. Give the dog lots of treats.

mcoleman

Yep, Love my dogs. Local law enforcement can't do much for folks like me that live 30 miles out of town on a ranch. We have a Great Dane in the house that hates strangers in her house and a 128 pound German Shepherd that stays outside usually by either the back door or front door. They give me plenty of time to grab my pistol and see which direction the dust cloud is headed. The Shepherd goes around catching armadillos and biting them until their backbone breaks. I'm glad she likes me.

Nate-03 D

Oh, Spokane. Problem solved. It was probely a Bigfoot. You should of shot it.

Sorry I couldn't resist.