My neighborhood is one paved road shaped like an L. My house is on the short part of the L at the end of the road. I have one neighbor across the stree and one to my left, towards the long part of the L. No street lights, no sidewalks. Then a dirt road starts after my house and goes about .4 mile through woods to my neighbors house. There is also a "logging" road through the woods to the railroad track about .5 mile away. My neighbor uses it to get trees every now and then and will drive one of his tractors down it every now and then. We have had cars park on the dirt road and have a party. We call the sheriff and they come and take care of it. There has been cars parked in the entrance of the "logging" road and I have leashed up one of the boys and taken a mag lite to check it. Shine the light in the side view mirror and the vehicle usually starts up or, is already idling, and puts it in reverse and leaves with no words exchanged. Me and the dog just stand there and stare at them while they drive away. I have stopped folks walking on the logging road (very, very rarely) and let them know it is private property. Never see them again. Almost all of these incidents were at night, sometimes very late. I may be stupid or naive but I have never taken a gun with me. I figured I would just ask the folks to leave and they would. Never thought I would actually need a gun. With that said, if someone were out in/by my barn or near my house/cars then I would likely assume a different scenario and would probably have a couple of guns, one that shoots multiple pellets and one that shoots bullets. So what have you actually had to do when you saw strangers in your neighborhood? What time(s) did the incidents occur? A lot of the responses in the other thread are what made me think about this. What would I do? what have I actually done? So, how about you? What have you actually done when you saw strangers in your neighborhood?
Bruce, I'm with you, on more than a few occasions, I've had some suspicious people around here and in my old neighborhood, and dealt with it in a proactive manner.... Had a guy show up pull into my drive-way one time looking for the former owner, a known drug dealer, and then get an attitude with me.... When I explained to him in not such kindly terms that the former owner was GONE, and that he should not EVER come back at the risk of being SHOT, he kindly tried to get he hell out of my driveway as I kicked in his fender, and went after him.... On another occasion, a guy showed up here and my wife greeted him with her .40cal pistol and explained to him that he was trespassing, and unless he wanted shot he should leave. Upon calling the Sheriff, the deputy that showed up said he expected a body considering it was my place... :D Until he found out I wasn't home at the time... Likewise, in my previous neighborhood, a car pulls up and is idling at 2 a.m., and it's not one of the neighbors, I go out and check it out, see what's going on... Another situation where a neighbor was a suspected, then later caught and convicted drug dealer...
I'm more on the naieve side, and thats probably not a good thing. On the other hand my neighbor is on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum...so I/we usually feel safe. Also living in a small town doesn't hurt either.
I run them down in my tightie whites I grew up in the country and I have had few incidents with folks, some with gun and some without. All incidents happen when they were on my property. If they are on my property I deal with them, if they are walking down the street, I watch them once I deem they are not a threat I get on with my life. If they are on a public road or area and not bothering me or breaking any laws, I leave them be. People have the right to be left alone if they are obeying the laws.
I ma not really talking about people on your property. Just folks in your neighborhood that you thought were suspicious. To me, and maybe it's just me, but suspicious people on my property is a vastly different thing than suspicious people in my neighborhood.
I am simply chiming in to express my disappointment in your sig line, Bruce. I beg you to not avoid those threads. But since I'm here, I grew up both in the city and the country. I currently live in the "city". If I see or hear suspicious behavior in my neighborhood (not on my property), I will investigate. Never had to do anything. So far, its just been teenagers having harmless fun. I will tell you what I absolutely hate with a passion...fireworks. I want to choke every person that finds it entertaining to light off fireworks at 1:30am on a Wednesday. I hate the 4th of July, and the weeks surrounding it. That is probably the main reason I leave my house as the result of a neighborhood disturbance. What is a little surprising is that its usually adults. You throw something and it goes "boom". Its not that cool.
At night, I have approached with a spot light so I can see them and they don't see anything past the light and asked "Are you lost?" That gives them a chance to claim they are and leave. During the daytime, I will approach them while in my truck and ask the same thing. When we first moved in here, I found the remnants of a meth lab in the back of the property. During our first year here, we put in a private property sign which caused a few to turn around and leave, and then a gate just past the house which ended all "lost" people from driving through the place.
I have yet to have to deal with this in my neighborhood. While I was cooking one day, I did look outside to see a woman taking pictures of my house from the sidewalk. I just walked outside, and she then told me that she used to own the house, and was just taking pictures to show her husband how much it has changed. I actually invited her inside to see all the remodeling that we have done.
I have two trailcams on my driveway here,you might be surprised who drives up your drive way while your out,some are looking for patterns with time of day you are home and some look in your mailbox or even knock on your door. Try it sometime.
Fired a lot of rounds and called in a lot of artillery, but that was in Vietnam. LOL. Other than that... not much, just observed. I have walked out and ask people if I could help them. I've also put a firearm within reach and observed. I've never taken a firearm outside my home to talk to anyone.
My family has lived on my stretch of country road forever...and i RARELY encounter strangers in the area. I cant even remember the last time that happened.
I have several encounters. This one being the best. It was a hot summer night. Mind you my house at the time sit alongside a main highway on the outskirts of town. I had my bedroom window open. About 2:30 AM I hear two men outside whispering. I look outside and two men digging through my boat. Keep in mind I keep it loaded with my gear all summer. I grab my Beneili M1 and run out the front door in nothing but my tighty whities. I shoulder my shotgun as I come around the corner of my house and yell "STOP". One of the guys immediate shines a flash light in my face. I immediately demand he lower the light and at the same instance the other guy yells Sheriff's department and told me to lower my weapon. I didn't buy into it immediately as there was not a cop car anywhere to be seen. At that instant a unmarked patrol car pulled in my driveway and I could see they were indeed law enforcement. I lower my gun and leaned it up against the house. One of the officers came over to me and the other went back to throwing gear around in my boat.. The officer demanded I return inside. I demanded that he tell me what was going on and whatever it was, I was staying outside until they quit messing with my property. It turns out they had had a high speed car chase with a suspect and they believe he had stashed his junk in my boat as he ran through the neighborhood. I certainly hope those two officer know how close they came to death that night. 1 of 2 times I have ever pointed a gun at anyone and I had every intent of using it if necessary. We have since moved to another town. We have live in this house 7 years. A few years ago I had a car pull in my driveway right after dark. One of the guys jumped out and did a “ grab and go” with some tools out of my garage. They had no idea I had just finished my yard work and was sitting on the porch. Bad idea... They took off however I ran them down in my truck, got their license plate and the cops took pursuit. I did get my stuff back. Only other weird thing is an older gentlemen that lived out of his pickup was spending his days walking round on neighborhood. After several calls to the cops stating there was nothing that could be done as he hadn't broke any laws. Several of the men on our block approached him and told him he was not welcome and needed to be on his way. Mind you it was summer time, school is out, and we have a community pool all the kids continuously walk to and from.
I have owned three different homes in the past 12 years. I cannot remember the last time I've had to deal with a suspicious person walking through the neighborhood. Most of the time I see suspicious vehicles. When I see them I just stand and stare, and if they stare back and try to intimidate me (like most punks do), I just keep staring with a blank expression on my face and they leave. If I feel like I need to be armed before I go outside to deal with something, I make it happen. If I don't, I don't.
i don't live in a great area so when i feel the need to confront someone i always bring my gun with. ive never actually needed it but i like to have it just in case
I was born on 4th of July, but doing fireworks at 1:30 in the morning is beyond reasonable. Throwing fireworks at passing cars is just plain stupid. Far as confronting people in parked cars, I don't do it unless it's impeding my coming or going. When that happen around here it's usually a college student trying to get a quickie.
