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Old September 20, 2006, 07:23 PM   #26
bennnn
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The peephole reverser foiled by a post it note... I love it. I tried the post it note cover out and here's what I saw; the yellow ones still let someone outside (in the dark) see a slight darkening of the peep if there is a light on inside.. But if it's dark inside... It's great..
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Old September 20, 2006, 08:27 PM   #27
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Quote:
(and to make sure they're not calling China on our dime).
A cell phone without service can still call 911 without charge. IIRC, that is federal law/regulation. Check around GoodWill, senior centors, thrift stores. You can find a cell phone and charger for just a few bucks and keep it plugged in next to the door.

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Old September 21, 2006, 01:34 PM   #28
reils49
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This same situation happened to me. I reacted the same way.
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Old September 21, 2006, 03:18 PM   #29
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Doorbell at the front at 3:00 am??
Let the Weimaraners out the back door first......................

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Old September 21, 2006, 03:57 PM   #30
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Step 1. Jump up so hard I hit my head on the ceiling fan. Curse the ceiling fan. Curse whoever hung it. Curse myself for leaving it on.

Step 2. Grab a katana. Realize that's not the right one. Grab another one. Curse whoever left all these stupid katanas laying around. (Oh, wait... It was me... Man, it's late!)

Step 3. Finally arrive at the correct katana. It's the one that I got at the pawn shop a few years ago. It's made out of 550 stainless! It has a gold spray-painted tsuba (hand-guard)! I sharpened it myself! ...with a Dremmel tool!!!

Step 4. Maneuver toward the door. Stumble on piles of laundry. Curse laundry. Curse whoever's job it is to do the laundry. (Oh, wait... it's me again...)

Step 5. Proceed down the hallway. Knock EVERY SINGLE picture off the wall along the way. Curse designer of hallway.

Step 6. Stub my toe REALLY HARD on the bag full of bokens and katanas sitting in the living room, behind the couch, on the way to the front door. Curse all that is holy. Curse bag. Curse contents. Curse self for leaving bag there... (you get the idea...)

Step 7. Take a position beside the door. Draw katana and hold it overhead, facing the door.

Step 8. In a single swift, fluid motion, cut downward with katana, severing the doorbell box from the door. Experience elation that the doorbell is now dead. Perform ritual bloodshedding movement (chiburi) with katana. Return katana to saya (scabbard).

Step 9. Return katana to shelf over headboard. Go back to bed.
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Old September 22, 2006, 09:37 AM   #31
Chris Phelps
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Doorbell rings at 2:45AM... I answer it. It's so common it isnt even funny... and its always one of two friends.
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Old September 22, 2006, 12:10 PM   #32
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A similar incident happened during the course of the summer.

Knock on door (No doorbell) at around 11:45 pm. Wife was away at sister's in VA Beach so I knew that no one was coming around. I picked up 12 ga and pumped one round into chamber and walked downstairs.

Turned on lights in the front and checked out visitor through side window. Some young kid asking if this house was where the party was. Hmmm....Party at a dark, noiseless home.

Told him he was at wrong address (did not open door or show him the 12 ga.) via window partially obstructed by wall cover.

He drove away and never heard from him again. Was alert for the rest of the night though.
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Old September 22, 2006, 04:40 PM   #33
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re peephole reverser

LOL Springmom; that puts me in mind of the Sienfeld episode where Kramer reversed his peephole. That is a good piece of information though I was not aware of such a device.
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Old September 22, 2006, 06:04 PM   #34
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It's been years ago, but had the doorbell ring around 0300. Lived in not so good a neighborhood, but suspected it was a friend who's an alcoholic. Either way, I was pissed, because I work early & my sleep cycle was now shot for the night. Looked out the peephole, and saw a young woman ( late teens early twenties ), crying and asking for help. There is a low row of hedges near our front door, and possible someone could be crouching down behind those hedges, ready to jump up as soon as I unlock & open the door. So I did have a gun in my robe pocket. Turns out though, she had just been raped & dumped a couple blocks away. She'd been going door to door asking for help, but nobody would answer their door.

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Old September 22, 2006, 09:34 PM   #35
smallshot
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Living in the sticks in Wyoming, I would :
A- Have to assume that before making it to my door he/she has already disabled or killed my dogs and
B- is performing a threat check to see if anyone is home
ergo - go out another door and Shoot them - then get the backhoe out.

Just kidding.
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Old October 2, 2006, 08:03 PM   #36
Walter
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T V

If my doorbell rings at 2:30 in the morning, after I grab my bedside pistol,
I will proceed to my living room where I will turn on the TV. With the TV
being previously set on Video 1 channel, the camera mounted over the
front door of my house will show me what, or who, is happening outside.

I will make appropriate decisions after viewing the video.

Modern technology is great, ain't it?

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Old October 3, 2006, 12:41 AM   #37
Powderman
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Someone mentioned this in passing...

but if you have a peephole, do NOT have any lights on when you check it. Also, if you are suspicious of who is at your door, call out "Who is it?" and then move. Do not EVER stand directly behind a door that you are answering.
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Old October 13, 2006, 05:51 AM   #38
TwoKings
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I posted in another thread here about having thugs bang on my apartment door when I lived in a bad neighborhood during college a few years ago (also have stories of said thugs trying to kick my neighbor's door down).

I quickly bought a shotgun and realized that apartments advertising "panic" buttons in each room were not meaning it to be a feature to make us feel safe, but to report the crimes to come.

If it were to happen now, I would arm myself and make sure they knew it by racking the slide of my handgun or shotgun by the door. I would be very aggressive and have my girlfriend ready to dial "911".

I have also had the pleasure of waking up at 5 am only to find strangers in my living room watching TV and drinking my beer because my roomate forgot the lock the door...they were drunk and had mistaken my place for the one a floor up and quickly felt my wrath...NO ONE takes MY beer.

Like many have said...Nothing good ever happens after midnight...lucky for me, I am a night owl and stay up until 3 am every morning. The lights and TV are always on, so that might detract some people.
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Old October 13, 2006, 07:37 AM   #39
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My apartment has an intercom so I can key that up from the top of the stairs and avoid the whole "in front of the door" situation. Friends all know how to reply, and I can tell by their voice if it's a friend or someone I don't know. If the late night visitor doesn't i.d. themselves correctly I don't go down stairs. If they decide to kick the door in, they have a narrow stairwell they have to come up to get to the rest of the apartment with me at the top with my .45 and 12 230gr jhp's I pulled from the hideaway picture frame right above the intercom.
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Old October 13, 2006, 08:50 AM   #40
Maui19
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Even though I live in a pretty rural area, I do get people knocking on my door at night. If this happened at 3am, I'd grab my 12 ga, throw on the exterior floods, and "answer" the door from a second floor window above the main entrance. The wife would have the phone in hand.
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Old October 13, 2006, 09:04 AM   #41
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When I bought my place, it had and still has a glass front door. Now, originally there was nothing in front of it and I did *not* like that, you could see right in like an open window, etc. So I hung a big floor to ceiling blind on it.

Now, why not replace it, asides from the money?

1. you can't just "bust in" or knock me aside, you'll just put your foot/shoulder through the door

2. It's double paned tempered, break it and you make one hell of a noise and cover yourself in sharp little squares (i.e. evidence, which will prove that the corpse laying on the living room floor broke in)

3. It transmits sound well enough to talk through

And if anyone just picks the lock, I have a wind chime hung from the ceiling right behind the door. *I* know it's there, but anyone who opens the door too far too fast makes a heck of a racket.

Now, to answer the original question, if someone rings my doorbell at 2:45am I grab my pistol and before I even approach the door I look to see what's in my driveway... if they walked up, they turned on the motion detecting floodlights and I can see all the way to the street and beyond. I know what my friends drive, so I know right off if it's someone I know. Then I'll pop a slat in the blind up and look from off to the side, which isn't always successful because of the angle, so I'd be exposed for a bit... darkness and reverse glare is my cover, there's an outside light just above the door and that pretty much ensures you can't see in. And then, we talk through the door.

My entry is also about 5' up from the level of the yard and the porch isn't deep enough there to get much of a running start at the door. If you kick the door and it doesn't give, you may very well find yourself taking a backwards tumble over the railing onto my nice sharp holly.
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Old October 14, 2006, 06:29 PM   #42
StayCool
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What to do about 2:45am doorbell?........

First: Stay Cool-probably will amount to nothing.
2nd: Collect thoughts-clear head of sleep (if sleeping)
3rd: Arm self (if that is your choice) plus have phone with you or near.
4th: Investigate without letting door bell ringer know you are present.
5th: Remember-You don't HAVE TO open the door for ANYONE.
6th: Consider talking to person from open window-not open door.
7th: Call in an airstrike as a precaution-move to bunker.
8th: Return to previous activity.
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Old October 14, 2006, 07:42 PM   #43
User14
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Curse yourself for not placing enough smart mines.
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Old October 14, 2006, 08:15 PM   #44
MostToysWins
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Quote:
Step 1. Jump up so hard I hit my head on the ceiling fan. Curse the ceiling fan. Curse whoever hung it. Curse myself for leaving it on.

Step 2. Grab a katana. Realize that's not the right one. Grab another one. Curse whoever left all these stupid katanas laying around. (Oh, wait... It was me... Man, it's late!)

Step 3. Finally arrive at the correct katana. It's the one that I got at the pawn shop a few years ago. It's made out of 550 stainless! It has a gold spray-painted tsuba (hand-guard)! I sharpened it myself! ...with a Dremmel tool!!!

Step 4. Maneuver toward the door. Stumble on piles of laundry. Curse laundry. Curse whoever's job it is to do the laundry. (Oh, wait... it's me again...)

Step 5. Proceed down the hallway. Knock EVERY SINGLE picture off the wall along the way. Curse designer of hallway.

Step 6. Stub my toe REALLY HARD on the bag full of bokens and katanas sitting in the living room, behind the couch, on the way to the front door. Curse all that is holy. Curse bag. Curse contents. Curse self for leaving bag there... (you get the idea...)

Step 7. Take a position beside the door. Draw katana and hold it overhead, facing the door.

Step 8. In a single swift, fluid motion, cut downward with katana, severing the doorbell box from the door. Experience elation that the doorbell is now dead. Perform ritual bloodshedding movement (chiburi) with katana. Return katana to saya (scabbard).

Step 9. Return katana to shelf over headboard. Go back to bed.
WOW, this is exactly what I would do!

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Old October 16, 2006, 09:48 PM   #45
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interesting to see the differences in abodes

hmm.. I live in a beach town, a real southern california beach town that gets all sorts of vagrants, long hairs, surfers, stoners etc. wandering through. 99% are peaceful, but the ones you have to watch out for are the drunk ones or the ones on meth.

I live in an apt building jammed in between two others where everybody is pretty much aware of who's supposed to be there and who isn't. If somebody knocked on my door at 3 am about a half dozen other households would know it. So it would either be someone I know (probably not) or somebody who's got the wrong apt. Probably would look out the window with gun in hand. Somebody breaks in and 911 gets called by a neighbor before I'm even fully awake.
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Old October 17, 2006, 12:56 AM   #46
Recon7
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have a light on your front porch area that is already on so you don't let him know you are home by turning it on and keep the room behind the door dark. I am a big fan of metal security doors. if i open the door i can see you and talk to you and still have a barrier between us.
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Old October 17, 2006, 03:05 PM   #47
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If anybody should be knocking on my door or ringing the doorbell that early in the morning, they had better be driving a car with "police interceptor" written on the trunk with red and blue lights mounted on the roof. Other than that, I will be armed, talk to whoever through door, solve the issue and go back to bed. Generally oppurtunity knocks, trouble kicks in the door. -BamaXD
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Old October 18, 2006, 12:36 PM   #48
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In my last three houses, I installed a bay window above and overlooking the front door. Thus, I never answer the front door - day or night - without checking the "visitor" from a protected position above.

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Old October 18, 2006, 03:40 PM   #49
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oj I like the bay windows, a good place for a support by fire element while the manuvering element opens the door.
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Old October 18, 2006, 04:22 PM   #50
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oj I like the bay windows, a good place for a support by fire element while the manuvering element opens the door.
Thanks. I should have included this picture of the bay window with my "alarm system" and - you hit the nail on the head although, if we don't approve, the door never gets opened and the "firing element" (me with my Colt's Series 70 Government Model 45 ACP) has a clear shot if it appears there is intent to intrude uninvited. The front door is 1/2 level down from the window on the left so they have the disadvantage of having to look up while I'm looking down - a very real tactical advantage.



These two have a "defense plan" - Drown'em in Drool - but their size (brindle 187# & fawn 202# yesterday) makes them look impressive despite their very gentle nature. They are help with solicitors, though. They bark (about 110 decibels each) during the pitch and, after about the third time I tell the solicitor I can't hear them - they just throw up their hands and leave.

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