Heads up; on doing a Holiday season dumb thing!!

[BAM-BAM]

We've been doing a fair amount of online shopping this year.... bunch of deliveries over the past weeks by UPS and USPS. Packages are left on our small covered front porch...... the UPS guys will often ring the doorbell and head up the driveway (they park at the top of the driveway).........

About 30 minutes ago I'm working in the office when the doorbell rings once.......... OK we're expecting a $$$ package..... so stop what I'm working on and go to retrieve the package.....

open the front door..... and the ''package" is a scruffy 40-50 year old guy...... "looking for 3931"..... all the mailboxes along the road are numbered including ours 3939.... he drove down my 200+ ft driveway.... parked and walked 20 yds to my door..... to ask directions??????


Maybe he was lost..... all the houses sit off the road back in the trees..........some not really visible from the road...most driveways are still covered with last nights 4inch snowfall (mine is clear)..... but my visitor didn't really pass my smell test!

Me..... I didn't look/check before opening the door or grab my office gun (5906 I "usually" tuck it in my belt under my LLB flannel lined shirt when I "answer" the door) before opening the door!!!!!!! Did have my Benchmade clipped to my jeans.......

Got busy......... got lazy/complacent ...........got sloppy. I'm 64 but most folks take me for..... a fit mid-50s ......he said thanks and left.....

and dxxx it was not able to get his licence plate........driving a late model Red Chevy crossover SUV.


Just a heads up ..............don't get lazy or complacent!!!!!

 

[jscheck]

Thanks for the reminder! It's not uncommon here for crooks to ring the doorbell to see if the home is empty before breaking in. If someone answers the door they do the same as your guy did.

 

[amazingflapjack]

I don't open the door unless I know the individual, and why they are there ahead of time.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Thanks for the reminder! It's not uncommon here for crooks to ring the doorbell to see if the home is empty before breaking in. If someone answers the door they do the same as your guy did.

Ya, not uncommon.....that said.. my truck was in the driveway(cleaned off) and one car in the garage (wife's at work). So some indication/appearance someone was home.

 

[oneounceload]

I don't open the door unless I know the individual, and why they are there ahead of time.

So, you know all of your delivery folks?

 

[wingriderz]

Great message tis the season to slipp up we all have done it. But in a blink as we all know it can be on

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

I always know who's at my door thanks to my motion detector doorbell. It pops up on my computer and smart phone whenever someone walks up to my door. They get their photo sent to the "Cloud". Costs me 30 bucks a year for saving the recordings.

Too bad you couldn't get a plate number....

 

[Sevens]

Here's where I post that my life is much simpler on daily tasks because the carry gun is always on me... and where other folks who breeze through each day in condition white comment that I need to move or that I'm paranoid or that they can't imagine not feeling "safe" in their own home such that they must carry a firearm, even at home.

Who carries a pocket knife or a wallet? Another tool that is handy... this one is louder than the others, weighs a little more on my belt.

 

[old bear]

Heads up; on doing a Holiday season dumb thing!!

I never found it necessary to wait for a holiday to do something stupid

Really though, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Tom S.]

I have two house alarm systems. An electronic one with multiple sensors and a couple of four legged ones with fur. It's very rare for someone to even make it to the door with out the four legged alarms going off.

 

[Jebus35745]

Surprised you don't have a gun in every room or stashed by each door. Larry

 

[amazingflapjack]

Yep...

So, you know all of your delivery folks?

Know them all, and if I don't know the substitute, I know when something is due to be delivered. But they can't just walk up to my door, I have a gate and fence around my front area, and a table just inside of the gate for them to leave things on. also have a window 25 feet away from that locked gate that I can get eye contact with whoever is out there from. Our experience motivates us to keep our security procedures REAL SIMPLE.

 

[OMCHamlin]

Similar vein, I was coming home last night, sundown, driving down my street, looked over to my horseshoe shaped driveway, and there's a U-Haul truck parked at my front door!!! He starts pulling away, I floor it and block his exit, approach the truck and challenge him. (Look, you gotta understand, strange, unknown U-Haul trucks can haul away a lot of your stuff, often in broad daylight, I was thinking I was getting burglarized!)
Turns out it was a UPS driver, and they lease these U-Hauls this time of year! Holy ****, things calmed down, I apologized and in the end, he asked if I would call UPS and complain, because he said other guys have had the same reactions. So I did, they should mark those trucks and mark them well, I'm sure I'm not the only guy that might react the same way.

 

[CajunBass]

I work as a contract courier. While most of our business is business to business, some of it is delivery to private homes. Mostly medical stuff I guess. I suppose the people we're delivering to are expecting us, because I've never had anyone not open the door. Most seem pretty glad to see us.

A few years ago, we did deliver a LOT of packages for Airborne Express about this time of year. We arrived in a regular pickup/passenger car. We were to get a signature if there was anyone home, or just leave it at the door.

So if someone knocks on your door and says "courier" don't shoot. It might be me.

 

[rwsmith]

I caught a guy in the church.....

Thanks for the reminder! It's not uncommon here for crooks to ring the doorbell to see if the home is empty before breaking in. If someone answers the door they do the same as your guy did.

It was Wednesday night and the only thing at church was choir practice. We had a flurry of scammers and people looking for handouts. I ran into a guy that didn't belong and when I asked if I could help him, he said, "I'm looking for 'Mount Olivet Baptist Church'". I know there isn't a church of that name in the area so I told him we were blah blah Presbyterian church so he left with no trouble. But I know he wasn't there for a good reason. This was before I even thought about carrying a gun at church.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

A friend of a friend (and from the very rich side of the tracks) lived in the woods, and at the end of a 1500 ft. driveway. Circa 1995, She was driving home in her wedding present, a 1964 Stingray (nice gift from the new hubby!) When she notices a car followed he down the drive way, she parks beside the front door, walks in and hits the security panic button! The husband's 8 bay garage (2 deep by 4 double doors) has 16 to 18 classic cars parked in and around it, The mystery car stops and looks at the garage and proceeds to the main house. Her security center in the house "bings" every time a car comes through the drive entrance and "bongs" every time a car comes through the back entrance (from a different road). She hears binging and bonging like a pinball machine, so she opens the front door. The early 20's driver left 3 passengers in the car and came to the front door, showers an Ohio Highway patrol ID and says there are several safety issues with her car! She smiles and says, "Tell it to them!" and points to 6 cruisers flying up the front drive and 2 more coming up the rear. Since the Highway Patrol post is a mile or so up the road. 3 of the 8 cruisers were OHP that answered the distress call. Turned out, all the young men were cadets from the OHP Academy, from about 15 miles away. It seems the Academy Commander, and the Patrol Commandant already agreed that the cadets were up to no good and they were already suspended, and now on their way to jail!

There is nothing like having the Township Police Chief, a Sherriff's Captain and a Highway Patrol Lieutenant stand in your living room and lecture you on how stupid it is to open the door to strangers! (but of course in a very respectful way!)

Ivan

 

[Qball]

I have two house alarm systems. An electronic one with multiple sensors and a couple of four legged ones with fur. It's very rare for someone to even make it to the door with out the four legged alarms going off.

Same here, but i only need the four legged one.