Weird experience today... someone following me

[feralmerril]

I have lived a sheltered life.

 

[Wayne02]

Good for you in being aware of the situation at least. One of the biggest eye openers for me when we purchased property in a rural/farm type area was how complacent the residents were with regard to crime and such. Everybody would say, "this kind of thing never happens out here in the country". Yet the fact is crime did happen out there and with relative frequency, yet people who had not been directly affected lived in denial I guess.

My inlaws have used the driveway alerts with great success on the driveways around their rural property. You could install one of the cheapy ones in short order and if you are going to be around home the next couple of weeks it would at least give you notice of someone approaching. That would allow you to slip out the back, loop around in the woods and observe to determine intent. Who knows, could be Jehovas witnesses, long lost girlfriend Daisy Duke, or other less desirable 'guests'.

 

[Pasifikawv]

Aren't the dogs supposed to be the driveway monitors?

eh... My mutts are little lap dogs that hang out inside most of the time. They only help as noise-makers. Adorable creatures, but pretty worthless for home protection... But if the chime doesn't alert me or wake me, the dogs certainly do... Plus, the chime sounds well before the sound of the car is close enough to hear...

 

[Pasifikawv]

If you have the unit I am familiar with, it is an excellent product, if it is magnetic and not optical in its operation.

Problem is, a company called "Mighty Mule" bought the product, and outsourced the components to China. Although the new product looks the same as the previous one, it is pure junk now.

Dakota Alert is a good one these days, Amazon is a good source as to price and availability.

Had mine for about 12 years now with no problem. I tried searching for it once at the request of a friend and couldn't find my particular unit on the inter-web. The buyout you referred to is probably why I couldn't find it...

 

[Cobroller]

The cable hit the truck's grille and scraped up onto the hood. I thought I could just back up off the cable and as I did so, it ripped the entire grille assembly off the truck.

I have had three opportunities to try and convince my wife that driving away from a struck obstacle may cause more damage. Example one left a major scrape the full length of the truck. Example two she backed into Dad's truck bumper and did major damage to the car by pulling forward again. Last year she backed out of the barn in the dark and struck a new hay mower (200 feet from the door). She then drove to the house to tell me she hit "something". I guess I am a poor teacher.

Back to the OP, I got a wrong number call this summer. A few days later I found that a neighbors house had been robbed while they were away.

 

[Landpimp]

I have for years Dakota alerts all along my permiter of the property/driveway, works VERY well.

also just had Sonitroll Security(commercial system)installed(there alarms are VERIFIED calls to the PD, cops DO show up fast) with outdoor 24 vid survalnce/night vision/thermal....all monitored

big fence, with shooting holes

I have had what I suspected was someone following me home more than once, I just loose them....aint hard, but I am very aware at all times. Just pull over and let them go buy.........then follow them

Dakota Alert is a good one these days, Amazon is a good source as to price and availability.

 

[sjmjax]

I know this advice is a little late.

But if you think you're being followed, don't lead them to your home.

 

[truckemup97]

All of the above ideas are great. I think security and situational awareness are more necessary these days than ever. I would in no way tell you to ignore any of the above advice.

However, some of us just like to drive around. I like driving around out in the country, looking at houses, farms, junkpiles, etc. I like driving down new roads, even/especially if I don't know where they lead. Yes, I am careful about private property, but I can't say I've never accidentally trespassed. I know several other people who enjoy my "hobby", and none of us have sinister intentions.

Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence.

 

[feralmerril]

I have a lot of old timey ideas and feelings on these incidents. The first input is, many years ago I went through some trying times. I came out of them vowing I would never, ever live in fear. However, a few times that has worked against me. One time I got a phone call from someone I didnt know. The guy highly insulted me and said he was at such & such bar. In those days I rode a harley. When I got the phone call I was sitting in my house next to naked with only a pair of blue jeans on. He got me so mad that I put my bare feet in a pair of mocassins, didnt even put on a t-shirt, jumped on the harley and went to the bar that I had never been to before! Back then I probley weighed 275 #s, and you can imangine how I looked rideing down the street in north hollywood!
I found the bar, ran in and hollered out which one of you SOBs is so and so, (whatever name he had gave me).
Needless to say the place got queit, nobody stepped up and I felt like the biggest fool in the world.
It also was to get me away from my house----------

 

[ChadW]

I know this advice is a little late.

But if you think you're being followed, don't lead them to your home.

For sure. But it sounds like the OP was aware of them but had no reason to think he was being followed until the last turn.

 

[woodsltc]

It was probably someone trying to pay back some money they owed you !!!

 

[klondike]

It was the new IRS wealth unit trying to check out your S&W collection.

 

[gr8AmericanBash]

Post some game cameras along your driveway to catch the license plate and descriptions of any/all "visitors" to your hacienda.

 

[PALADIN85020]

It was a lackey of Janet Napolitano. Homeland Security believes that all gun owners are potential terrorists. She's just keeping you under surveillance to be sure the rest of the country is protected from you. If you were in the military, all the more reason to suspect you. That's their logic, at any rate...

 

[USAF385]

Man... today I hid my car, sat up in the woods in my snow ghillie suit in the 20 degree weather and just waited from dawn until dusk... nothin!

 

[MikeD99]

Back in '92 I was home during the day all the time. We live in a very rural area of Loudoun county, Va at the end of a dead end road. The houses are thousands of feet apart. My driveway annunciator dinged when I wasn't expecting anyone. I was in plain sight, standing in a large window looking out at the last curve in the driveway when a very old and well used Toyota Corolla slowly came around the corner. The driver looked right at me standing there in the windw and stopped and backed out the nearly 400 feet of the driveway. I thought nothing of it, figuring that it was somebody who was really, really lost. The next day I noticed two sheriff's deputy cars at a neighbor's house. I stopped in and asked what was going on and they told me his house had been broken into the day before. I was able to give a description of the car and its occupants to the deputies. They didn't catch anyone but I figured it was almost me except for my standing in that window and being seen. I was an FFL back then and sold my neighbor a Sig 9mm the very next week.

Mike D.

 

[jlrhiner]

A snow ghille suit AND a spoon. I am so jealous!

 

[USAF385]

A snow ghille suit AND a spoon. I am so jealous!

I love it when someone randomly remembers the spoon!!!!

 

[Spotteddog]

Shrunken heads on pikes along either side of the driveway.
Odd random piles of bones at visible locations along the drive.
Spent 12 gauge husks @ driveway entry and near the stacks of bones.
Ranging stakes marked in meters, whose numbers get lower nearer the house.
A tree chipper in a handy obvious location.
Hopefully not too subtle for the mutt(s) to understand?

 

[YogiBear]

Aloha,

Area around home cleared of vegetation for at least 100 yards or more, range markers and a slightly curved drive (no straight line to home) with shallow drainage ditches on both sides? Old car with bullet holes just inside of cleared area?

Pack of large loose dogs?