An Adventure in Home Defense

Got this from an aircrew buddy living here in the Ole Pueblo:

I was lying in bed the other night at 1:00 AM. I heard the doorbell and found it odd that somebody would be ringing the bell at that time. There are very few people that know where I live and the ones who do would never show up at 1:00 in the morning ringing the bell. I figured that I was hearing things or they would just go away. Then the pounding on the door started. I decided to get out of bed and get dressed and go take a look.

Before walking out of the room I decided it might not be a bad idea to take my Glock 23 out of the nightstand. Heading for the door I hear the bell ring again and then being followed by more pounding. Looking out the peep hole in the door all I could see was shapes on the porch and the outline of a car in the street with the tail lights still on. I walked back to the center of the house and heard a sound like somebody was trying to open the metal gate to my backyard while the knocking and ringing continued. I decided that I had had enough fun with the situation so I went back into the bedroom to get the extra magazine I keep in the nightstand (a retired cop friend always told me that you can't call timeout during a gun fight to go get extra rounds). I looked between the blinds and the sliding back door to see if I could see anybody in the backyard. Not seeing anybody in the backyard I decided it was time for me to go out and take a look.

I set the house alarm to "instant" at night so I knew as soon as I opened the backdoor I would trip the alarm system. I figured loud noises at 1:00 AM would work to my advantage. I cracked the door, the siren started screeching and I went out on the back patio. I used the wall for cover as I checked the north side of the yard. With the north side being clear I checked south. South was clear also. I decided the south direction would get me to front quicker than going north. As I went around the corner of the house and approached the 5 foot brick wall that is my fence I decided I would announce my presence before going up and over the wall. Before I jumped on the wall I yelled, "I am coming over the wall, I have a GLOCK, and it is fully loaded. I went over the wall and took for the 5-6 remaining strides to get to the front yard. I made it to the front yard just in time to see the little compact car going down the street in a hurry.

I'm not sure what scared these people away, the alarm or the crazed man jumping a wall while announcing his side arm of choice. Whichever one it was I was just glad that they decided to depart the area before things got interesting. I brought plenty of toys to the potential fight (13 rounds in the weapon and 13 more in my back pocket) but I suppose it was better they left instead of having the shootout in my front yard. The funny part to this is that I was relaying this story to my friend at work and his only comment was, "What, you didn't take advantage of the moving target practice?"