Tiggs

ok...this story doesnt end up very exciting so dont read if you expect it to get all Rambo!!!


2 hrs ago (5am) i wake up and think i hear the door being knocked (bit odd as we have a bell and it wasnt a very loud knock)...just start to think i heard it in a dream when i hear the door handle being tried!!!!!!

now the real point of this post is a "how i reacted in time of stress" type thing as i often see posts on here about baseball bats under the bed for burglars and wondered if you would be in a fit state if confronted.

anyway....i jump out of bed, look out the window - no car on the drive but the security light is on over the garage.....wake wife up!

go downstairs......now half the door is frosted glass and i can see no one is there (also the light has gone off- its still dark out)

open the front door.....no one there? JESUS!!!! lying on the floor under my feet is something that i cant place initially.......looks like a bag of rubbish and jumbled clothes.....or is it a body.

Now heres the interesting thing......confronted by this unexpected scene my head when "freak out" for 5 secs.........my thoughts went from "its a bag with a dead dog in it" to "its a dead person" to "ohhhhhh ****e ...what is it"

basically i was just stood there looking at this thing in the dark with my brain doing somersaults as i tried to deal with the shock, the dark and no contact lenses in!!!

Meanwhile my wife is straight on the phone to the police and ambulance all calm and cool!

so.....initial reaction...me 0 wife 1 !

then it dawned on me this was clearly a body in a hooded sweatshirt curled up (this was pretty freaky in the dark!) and i decided it was either a sick person or a trick to get me outside.

so......useless panic over.....good panic starts!!!

i grab the maglight tell my wife i am going outside and to lock the door behind me and NOT to answer the door unless it is deffo me that is knocking.

i go to the neighbours and bang on their door thinking that if it is a trick the more ppl up and about the better.....then i go back to the body, shine the light in the face- no reaction...prob with torch...no reaction (couldnt tell if it wad dead or chillin'!!!

next thing this bloke raises his arm and starts mummbling "i can explain, i can explain" and gets to his feet! at this point i am now in full combat mode! and pretty sure this looks iffy- he isnt swaggering like a drunk and seems quite able to "explain" to me why hes there! i dont like the idea of him being stood up so i shout at him to "sit back down"....he ignores me and starts on about "i can explain mate" again.....so i yell in my best Jack Bauer voice SIT DOWN OR I WILL PUT YOU DOWN......i did this with a hint of Al Pacino and the yelling, maglight, 6ft6 house owner seems to dawn on him and he sat down pretty sharp. This was the interesting stage...by now i had had about 2 mins since seeing the "body" to turn my initial "fear/panic" into useable adrenaline and was ready for anything......i was completly aware of what was going on, made sure my back was to the car so i couldnt get jumped from behind, controlled Mr Hooded Top........in fact i was in complete control.......if he hadnt sat down i already had in my mind how i could drop to one knee and baseball bat stylee his knee......he was about 1 second from having a heck of a limp today!

now it gets boring, he sits there with no good reason to be there, i stand over him till police arrive (in a crappy red corsa!) and they deal with him....turns out he is some kid that lives not far away, bit drunk/bit drugged....no record, they take him home to his parents.

now....my wife who had been so cool initially went to bits when the yelling started....turned out she was nearly sick and had to lie down!

so, interesting how her initial reaction was cool...mine was useless...but when it became clear what was going on (or what it looked like) i was fine she was rubbish! I am pretty sure that once i was doing my Pacino bit that i could have quite easily dealt with him and a couple more........but confronted by an inital shock...i'm not sure- if he had really been a trickster and 3 blokes piled in when i opened the door would my "action "mode have kicked in so fast? thinking back im not so sure......in fact, thinking back to first seeing the body still gives me the shivers!

moral of story.....chicks good at first.....men better at being Al Pacino but need 2 mins to warm up!

T


should add:

neighbours never woke up!

reason i thought it was a dead dog...NO IDEA!!!! just shows you how the brain goes funny!!!....in fact there was something else it looked like but i couldnt place it at the time.....now i know, it was like a grey version of the people in red cloaks from The Village movie!!

the moose

Not a proper Scoobynet story. You're missing the bit where you laid into him good and proper with your baseball bat, breaking crucial limbs (having jumped, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stylee from the roof), waited for days for the police to arrive, who then charged YOU with assault, the cheeky beggars. Luckily, you've got some contacts, and you were soon on your way home from the station, with the desk sergeant (a gruff, grizzled veteran) touching his forelock and muttering "If only we were allowed to despatch them to A&E (which doesn't work the way it did when The Iron Lady, gawd bless her, was in charge) the way you did, son, the world would be a better place".

Oh, and it's all Tony Blair's fault.

(Editor's note: you're also meant to mention the spec of your car in nauseating detail, because the low-life scum was clearly after your neons, but you weren't gonna let him, no way, no man takes my questionable styling modifications and lives ...... etc etc etc)

ajm

Given your previous responses on the subject Tiggs, well done for not throwing him your car keys!

Ubik

Bubba po

LOL... very good, moose.

Tiggs

hence my post......would have been interesting had he been a "baddie" whether he would have got the swag!

I think the "excitment" of it all would have forced me to fight as long as i was able to get passed the initial "shock"

Rumplestiltskin!

Why did you open the front door ?
I would have kept it closed until the cops arrived, if you open it you put at risk yourself & your wife & your home to whoever might be outside surely ?
I know its easy to say in hindsight, but in that situation I would not go outside.

Ro.

The Chief

Happened to me but worse.

Came in from a night out a few weeks ago slightly drunk and i do mean slightly
anyway cut a long story short i fell asleep and left the bloody front door unlocked.

The next thing i am awoken by someone going through my back pocket looking for my wallet i woke up and there is this f**king bloke towering over me as i am lay on the sofa, well you've heard the saying i did not have time to think well i didn't i was up like a flash and i've got this bloke by the throat and slammed him against the wall now he was a big bloke but i am pushing 20 stone. The next thing this bloke breaks down and starts blubbering in front of me telling me he was concerned because he heard screaming and decided to check it out, now you dont just walk into someones house do you?

so i roughed him up a bit (if you know what i mean) and literally through him down my driveway - he wont come to my house again. but it did get me thinking - what if he had, had a knife, or put up a fight. i was so incensed my adrenaline took over i practically lifted him up the wall. It was only afterwards when i was ringing the police when i started s***ing myself and shaking.

The lot of 'em want stringing up

Tiggs

Ro,

good point, didnt even think about it.

however, my wife said (since) we should have looked through the living room window- which would have let us seen the body on the floor....had we done that and seen the body what do you do then? if it had been a neighbour or someone who had suffered a heart attack (or whatever) do we leave them there for 20 mins?

after realising it was a body i came in...locked the door....and went to get the maglight. while this was going on i had two things in my mind...was it a baddie 50% was it a dying person 50%. If it was a baddie could i deal with them 50%.......so it was 25% that i was going to be in big trouble!!! but i couldnt just let someone die on my door! i remember thinking "if the ambulance say....he's dead, pity you didnt act sooner" i would have been gutted.

also interesting...if he hadnt come roound when i yelled at him what would i have done? i didnt fancy checking for vitals on a hooded figure, in my doorway, in the dark...with wife and kids in the house...tricky one.

when

pwhittle

Some little ****** broke into my dad's recently, nicked the Audi keys so they could move that, to ge the the Scooby Sport ( hardly professionals!). Not sure who more surprised when he ended up being chased down the street by a 6" naked copper, him or the neighbours!
Npot a bad idea to have a Mag light handy - i think a basebeall bat's pushing it though, and more likely to get you knicked

Tiggs

people go on about maglights as though they are the be all and end all of DIY weapons........have to say...it was good. Its a large (not extra large) size, held overhand at shoulder level it did a good job of lighting him up, dazzling him and would have been quite easy to put him down with.....in fact, if i had a few attackers i expect it would be more use than a bat which is a bit of a one swing and your done thing.

Nexuas

The mag lite has two uses, first of all most of these things happen at night, shine the light in their eyes and they will be temporally blinded for a few second, this will give you the upper hand in use two, most useful maglites are about 40/50 cm long and contain 4/5 large heavy batteries, so making it a good hitting stick... also more of a defense to say I picked up my torch and went to investigate hitting the intruder with it in self defense, rather than I picked up my baseball bat with a nail in the end with the intent of battering who ever was trying to break into my house...

Ken 275

Whoah, Moose.

Tiggs has had a scare.

Don't lay into the guy with the "My Car's Better Than Your Car" biz.

Luckily there wasn't a lot going on, but there could have been.

Ken

the moose

Me, lay into Tiggs? I couldn't; he had a Maglite in his hand at the time ....

I *was* having a go at the "have a go heroes" of SN who seem to think that having a fully-stocked arsenal and the absolute right to use it are essential.

Tiggs is not one of these people.

Ken 275

Fair Do's Mate.

Just trying to preserve the "Community" ethos.

That's why we wave...

K.

fast bloke

bet you don't sleep properly tonight

After I had the Scoob stolen and the house burgled, I couln't sleep properly for ages as I was convinced they would come back for the stuff they didn't get the first time. Was downstairs at about 4.00AM three days later when I heard someone walk up the drive. Having had three days to plan what I would do, I opened the front door, grabbed the guy by the throat and was just about to give him the headbutt of a lifetime when he dropped the two bottles of milk he was delivering.......oops

Leslie

Well I can't criticise your actions Tiggs. Its a bit alarming having anything like that happen in the middle of the night and you just don't know if there are others hanging about and using the guy as a decoy so they can get into your house.

I think I would have been reluctant to open the door in the first place, these crims are getting very clever these days and you can't be sure what the next trick will be.

Glad it was all sorted safely anyway and sorry about the scare to your wife as well.

Les

Tiggs

speaking to others today they have all said "dont open the door"......but if we had looked outthe window and seen the body on the doorstep what do you do? just hide inside while someone dies? its a tricky one.......i would hate to think someone died when they banged on the door for help and i left them to it.

hard call to make.

T

MJW

No wonder the neighbours were shocked seeing a miniature naked policeman !
Unless the measurement refers to erm .. the 'flaccid' state !

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Is that with, or without your policeman's helmet?

Question in court: "So how did you know he was a police officer, sir?"
Answer: "Well, I could see his helmet"

Alcazar

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Have you found out any more about why the bloke was on your doorstep yet? Anyway It sounds like a very frightening situation to be in regardless of what his reasons for being there were.

It makes for interesting reading seeing how you and your wife reacted, I like the step by step account of your reactions. I hope that should I find myself in a similar situation my instinct and common sense will take over in much the same way that yours did. From past experience in a scary situation/emergency I initially go very calm and try to get the situation under control before dissolving into jelly once the emergency services turn up

Tiggs

not heard anymore...cops took him home (he had ID and wasnt "known" to them)

been talking to people today and its interesting how many ppls said "ohhhhh...dont open the door" or "you shuldnt have gone to check he was ok" etc etc

if it happened again i dont think i could leave a body lying in my doorway without trying to help.....i must be too nice

ajm

In days gone by the surgeon, whilst sowing up a dead sailor in his hammock, would put the last stitch through his nose to make sure he wasn't faking!

With that in mind, perhaps you could have "spilled" a cup of hot coffee over him from the window, just to see how badly off he really was, before venturing outside.

Tiggs

coffee for wimps...i should have a hammock and needle!

Leslie

Haha

Ken 275

Chin up Mate.

K.