What home invasion experience taught me

[sky123]

The issue of self-defence and home invasions come up quite frequently on gunsite. Over the last 6years or so, I had the unfortunate experience of having it happen 4 times!! So I thought I'd share some of that experience. Any suggestions or advice is of course welcome!

Now I am not law enforcement, nor do I have any SD training (only PH, but Kudus hardly ever break in to my home) so my experiences where raw, untainted by training like most of the population I guess.

I have always been good under extreme pressure (or lucky), grew up with different guns and shot them 1000's of times, so that did help and in some cases.

A) While I was a student, still living with my sister ( who's a better shot than most men with most guns and always packing) at 2:00 she checked out the window if I was home from my girlfriends, now wife. Underneath the window where 5 BG's, she shouted, they ran. I jumped up from my PC with headphones on, grabbed her 9mm and ran around the house checking for anything suspicious. Phoned the cops, took my flashlight and went outside to check on my 'bakkie', walked around the complex to check for any BG's.

The police showed up in an unmarked car, and as I stood and waited for them, they suddenly stopped jumped out and with flashlights and guns went running in different directions. I then realised that the BG's initially ran just about 50m into a dark spot an stood there the whole time watching me.

The next day I realised that they had already forced the gate in front of the kitchen door open, and the wooden door wasn't locked, so if they had 10 seconds more, they could just have walked in. But what is more scary was that I most probably ran past one or more of them when I went and checked on my bakkie (the kitchen door is behind a wall and obstructed from view.)

B) My wife and I had just moved into our first home in a complex, when one night I heard a scratching sound down stairs at about 3:00. I was still awake. I stood and listen, and finally looked out the window. Right underneath me where 2 BG's that I could see, trying to break in. I woke up my wife, who immediately implemented our plan in such cases to a tee (I was very proud). She called the cops, took the shotgun and locked herself in the bathroom, the thinking being that she is my achilles heel and with her out the way I'll always have a fighting chance.

When I returned to the window with my rifle, the burglars had moved to my patio door that is obscured from view, I could hear them trying to break the security gate. One of them came strolling past me, so calm and well dressed that I thought that he could not be a burglar. At one point I watched him through the rifle scope, and he didn't have a care in the world. Smart jeans, white sneakers, gold chain around the neck, not the picture normal Jo Public have of criminals.

I cautiously moved down stairs, and one of them were in front of the patio door. So I pushed a 180gr super X past his bad ass, straight through my glass doors. He scaled a 6ft wall with razor wire on top faster than I could unlock a gate!!!

C) Couple of months back I watched TV, crime channel to be exact (the irony I know) at just before 3:00 I heard a soft scratching noise at exactly same window they tried to break in the previous time. I sat up, and stared at to origin of the sound, as to figure out what it could be. Looked for any sign of movement etc. While I was staring at the window to my left, the mofos smashed the window 30cm to the right of my head. These are huge windows, 3mx2m single pane glass that cant open. It sounded like a 'donner buis' exploding, people heard it 5 houses away. Needless to say I got one hell of a SKRIK!!

I jumped off the couch, and the BG's started to enter through the hole in the window. At this stage I could not see them well, my view being obstructed by the curtain. So I just let loose with punches and kicks to the mass coming through the curtain. I yelled as loud as I could so my wife and her sister that was visiting could hear that the SWHTF! All I could think at this time was don't let them get into the house!!

About the 3rd punch I threw, the curtain moved open. And there stood the 3 f..kers, not even phased. Our faces where 30-40cm apart, they didn't even blink, just dodged my punches. Not even a measure of uncertainty in their eyes or demeanour. At this point my wife yelled something fierce, I was certain other BG's entered the home at another point and was now with my wife and kids! So I left the 3 in front of me and ran towards my wife, locking the security gate on the stairs behind me, thinking that it would be easier to fight just to the front, than to have intruders back and front. (the said f..kers actually ran after me into the house, I was just faster :)

Luckily when I got to our room, my wife was just yelling because she thought the BG's had gotten a hold of me. She again implemented our plan to great effect, even my sister in-law still remembered from 5years earlier, she took my kids out the way while my wife had the rifle ready.

I grabbed my .303 and pushed one between the scum! They did exit like a jack-russel on a tiled floor! This all lasted about 2min, but the damage was done in our heads and wallets. They managed to grab 2phones my kershaw and wallet (they knew where they would be) but left the tv what I believe they came for.

ADT showed up within 3min and the police 5min later (thanks guys). The ADT guard swept the terrain towards my house on his own, while the police, 8 of them walked behind me and my .303 all the way!! It was quite the sight!!

So what did I learn the hard way through this all:

-Never go outside alone!!
-Have a plan for different scenarios and empower your loved ones to implement them
(don't overload women with too much stories of attacks and rapes, this just pacifies them with fear)
-BG's don't make a lot of noise (hardly heard them 3m away)
-Sweep the terrain well, but only when the Police arrives.
-Have an alarm or beams that warn you before they get to your house.
-Have running shoes next to your bed, you never know when you might need them
-Have an easy lockable gate to divide the home from the sleeping quarters.
-Keep the secure area dark, and the home light so you can see, but not be seen.
-Know if you are fight or flight in a situation, and train yourself mentally to do the opposite if you have to. (If my wife didn't yell, I'd probably be hurt or worse)
-If possible, retreat first and fight from a position of strength.
-Bad guys have a lot more experience than civilians (Carte Blance recently said that BG's commit an average of a 105 crimes before being caught)
-Don't fool yourself (like I did) they are not afraid of you!!!!!!!!
-If possible and the situation allows it, shoot a warning shot as fast as possible, this would give you a very clear indication of their intentions, numbers and if they are armed.
-Any gun is better than no gun, but you HAVE to be willing and able to use it, otherwise get rid of it
-Any rifle size weapon is extremely difficult to use for SD inside the home, shotguns included. Running, going around corners, locking and unlocking doors etc.
-My .308 does make one sweet sounding BOOM when shot inside the home!! :)

My hope with this article is that someone will learn from my mistakes and get a picture of how situations like these goes if you have not been in one!

Keep safe

Saul Barnard

[Carbine]

Thanks for your post and info.
And Respect, for surviving all these attacks and defending your loved ones!
What city do you live in?

Just a word of warning. I recently did my semi auto rifle / hand carbine comp. and one of the scenario's in the manual was can you open fire from behind a closed safety gate that divides your home. If you are being shot at, you can legally return fire. However if your home invaders are not threatening your life, you cannot shoot at them as you are "safe" on the other side of the gate in the passage. It was an eye opener for me as I thought I could shoot in such a scenario.

Good luck and I hope that you are never faced with another home invasion. 1 is 1 too many.

Cheers.

[JS4]

Good post sky123!

Thanks for sharing.

[sky123]

Thanks, also hope it never happens again.

I know I can't shoot from inside to outside unless being shot at, but I aimed to miss not to hit. It was only motivation for them to leave and it worked! By law (in competency training it is shown) what the correct ways are to aim your gun in safe mode and where to shoot a warning shot, you know the 45 degree to the foot of the safest wall etc. So I mentally marked the safest places out of my windows and doors to shoot, as not to endanger anyone. So if the police ask, I can at least show them where I aimed and shot.

I live in the leafy suburbs of Pretoria East (seems more like gansta's paradise these days and much more dangerous than the farm)

About 30min ago there was again about 5 shots fired within hearing distance, and the police are extremely active the last 2weeks. I hear them almost every night!

Bloody sad state of afairs ;(

[BadBoyTazz4Ever]

Thanx for sharing...

I've also had at least 2 situations that could have gone south fast but lucky in my cases the bg's chose to move away & avoid confrontation. Agree that they are not scared of us the guys i walked 'in' on trying to take my bakkie in front of the apartment building casually walked away & even greeted me friendly before getting into a car that was park just behind my bakkie when they saw me walking across the road. I thought it was a couple of drunk guys taking a leak behind my bakkie / the tree i was parked next to, till i tried to unlock the passenger door & found the door was already open immediately did a re-assessment of the bakkie & found the bonnet was open backed away immediately & called the cops. The BG's drove around the block & as they came by gave me a wave.

Fully agree on the fact that you should not go outside alone. I've always been a strong believer in that in my house i know where i am & if they come in or try to come in & i hear them i know where they are & they don't know where i am. If i go outside i still know the lay of the land better but they might see me coming out & know exactly where i am but i have no idea where they are.

The house robbery we had our pup inside they house didn't even hear them when they came in bending / cutting the burglar bars away, i have no idea what woke her but she got really uneasy at one point gave a growl or two at witch point i decided to just check the house. Just before i unlocked the door to the front house she started barking like crazy so i left it locked & let the big dog (at that point still kept only at the rear of the house) into the house & only then investigated further.

So yes getting a alarm to sound as early as possible after they entered my yard has been my goal since that night.

The Wife & i have a basic understanding of what is expect of her in a crunch situation, but it might be time to sit & talk about what would be good options in certain scenarios & set some basic ground rules.

sky123 i know the feeling of hearing gunshots around your area. It's been quiet the last week or so, but had some real fun & games about 3weeks ago. I must say the community policing forum & patrols have helped cutting some of the BG activity down.

[Dylanm]

I would have paid to see cctv footage of those guys hauling ass after a shot has been fired in thier general direction.
I feel that home invasions are an extremely serious matter but I would absolutely p%ss my pants laughing at a few BG's scaling a 6 foot fence with razor coil on it.

Keep safe
Dylanm

[LukeS]

Thanks for this its interesting and eye opening.

How about another lesson: have a handgun and keep it on you?

Cheers

[Sweet]

Thanks for posting, Sky.

Lots to think about.

Sweet

[Bundu Ric]

Nice read, thanks for makimg the time to do the post.

[malcolmm]

Thanks for sharing your experiences sky123. Which suburb do you live in?