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In 1996 the small community (population 495) I live in in rural Vermont experienced a number of break ins. Various items were stolen and it was likely some of the local teens screwing off.
So I am home one day with three kids: ages 3 (girl) ,2 (boy) and 1 (boy) month old. We are between cycles at the Mountain Warfare School so I am home dumb happy and getting fat. I had just dropped my oldest daughter off at pre-school and came home with the other three. The way our house is situated I can see the entire 1500 foot driveway and after getting the kids situated I was watching my dogs outside playing in the drive when they all turned tail and ran for the door. Which was a very odd thing for them to do so I started for the mud room to find my very large neighbor standing in the doorway between the kitchen and pantry (which leads to the mud room).
I blew up and demanded to know what he was doing in my house to which this knucklehead answered: "I came to see what I could steal"
Now I am home alone with 3 kids. This guy is between me and the only viable exit as we had just dug up the footing drains and therefore had a 8 foot wide, 11 foot deep trench around the house. The only working phone at the time was beside him and the dogs were outside barking. I ordered him out a total of times (best Drill Sgt impression I could muster) and he laughed.
My daughter and oldest son came to see what Dad was screaming about and were right behind me so I ordered them to get the baby, go to their room, lock their door, go into their closet, lock that door and sit with their back to the door and not to move until I came for them. Again i ordered him out and he laughed and my sorry arse was totally unarmed. I couldn't even get so much as a kitchen knife with out being well with-in the 25 foot danger zone of this guy. So when I heard the bedroom door slam I beat feet to the living room where I had been working on my Grandfather's double barrel 12ga (which I should add was unloaded and had no firing pins in it at the time) and turned to find he had followed me and was now in the dinning room, right on my tail.
I turned, pointed what was effectively a paperweight at his head and told him last chance and he bolted. I got the kids, departed the house, called the State Police from the road and met them back at my house to ID the puke whom admitted to being in the house when I got home (in the basement where he entered through and unsecured bulkhead)
So learn from my mistakes. I had zero weapons available to me at the time. had zero planning done and things were rapidly going down hill and thankfully this idiot hadn't attacked while I was in retrograde looking for something that might go bang.
I am now rarely farther than two large steps away from a well hidden and loaded firearm anywhere in my house. I carry any time I am outside my house and always have a BUG on me. My kids, when over, know an immediate action drill, e & e and FPF plan and we have rehersed it multiple times.
My fiancee thinks I am paranoid and has always expressed her feelings that I am one brain cell short of wearing a bib all the time because of my "over preparedness". However, three weeks ago she was on the phone with me while I was coming home from work and the phone went dead, three or four seconds later the power went out and the dog started barking at the window. She clicked automatically into an IA drill and I arrived home 10 minutes later to find her locked in the bathroom with the dog, a scorpion light and a 1911A1 and demanded that I give her the sign/counter sign or there was going to be multiples holes in the door/wall where I was standing. The power outage was due to a telephone pole being taken out in town by a drunk driver, the dog was likely barking at his own shadow and she did a fine job in my opinion.
Moral of the story is: never forget to prepare for daylight bad guys or for times when your loved ones might be home with out you.
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