togterry
.22LR
Hopefully I am posting this in the correct area and I apologize for the length.
I have been a member of the Mossberg Forum forum for a short time. I am a fairly new owner of firearms and currently have two rifles. I joined because of concerns about home defense and was trying to decide on a shotgun. After reading around I settled on a Mossberg 500 but I put buying it off. This turned out to be a colossal mistake.
My wife and I have a house in north-central NY state. We spend about three weekends a month up there and any other time we can work out. This past Sunday we woke up and my wife started breakfast and I had to go pick up some paint that we ran out of as we were painting the living room. The store is about 30 minutes away.
I left and locked the door. As there is a great LGS near the paint store I brought along my 10/22 as I was having trouble zeroing a new scope. After getting some gas and driving for about 15 minutes the phone rang - it was my wife - screaming that someone was trying to get in the house. I could hear banging in the background. I told her to call 911 and to find a place to hide - I also told her where my Marlin 336 30-30 is (although she has never shot anything bigger then a .22). She screamed loudly and there was a bang and the phone went dead. Needless to say I flipped out. I made a quick u- turn and in a small snow storm headed back at around 80mph.
I called 911 and reported the incident and they had a sherif's deputy listening in to the call and he was on his way. - about 20 minutes out. Called the house back several times and there was no answer. Tried her cell phone. No answer.
As I had 15 - 20 minutes I called my father who is a retired law enforcement officer. He instructed me to call 911 back and let them know that I was getting to the house and I was armed with my 10/22 takedown.
I arrived to find the screen door ripped off the hinges and the main door intact. I ran around the side and found the deck door intact. Then came around the front and was about to kick the door in. Just then a sheriff's deputy flew into our driveway. He jumped out with his gun drawn and I threw my rifle on the ground. He quickly saw that I was the home owner and quickly unloaded the rifle and approached the house - the door then opened and my wife came out hysterical. Some troopers showed up and they did a search and did not find anyone.
It turns out that about 15-20 minutes after I left my wife heard a loud bang from the front and thought it might be me so she approached the door to see someone turning the knob and trying to force their way in. She called me and there was another loud bang - apparently they were trying to kick the door in. She then started to scream, then dropped the phone and ran to the back room to hide. I thought the line was cut or worse but she was just following my directions. She did not have her cell phone so she did not want to come out of her spot in the closet to get it.
The sheriff said that they have had some home invasions as well and robberies recently. They believe some meth freaks are coming from the larger towns nearby to find easy victims and to rob "weekend" homes. The area is pretty desolate so it would seem to be a good area for some psycho to come out to mess with decent hard working Americans. They must have seen me leave and thought the house was empty or knew she was in there by herself.
I learned a lesson - I need to take home defense VERY seriously. I am picking up a Mossberg 20 gauge home defense model now. My wife will also take a more active role in learning and planning how to deal with self/home defense.
Again, sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure people understand that the threats are real and I want to make sure that my family is better prepared in the future. If you are reading this and wondering if you should take it seriously please learn from my experience.
I have been a member of the Mossberg Forum forum for a short time. I am a fairly new owner of firearms and currently have two rifles. I joined because of concerns about home defense and was trying to decide on a shotgun. After reading around I settled on a Mossberg 500 but I put buying it off. This turned out to be a colossal mistake.
My wife and I have a house in north-central NY state. We spend about three weekends a month up there and any other time we can work out. This past Sunday we woke up and my wife started breakfast and I had to go pick up some paint that we ran out of as we were painting the living room. The store is about 30 minutes away.
I left and locked the door. As there is a great LGS near the paint store I brought along my 10/22 as I was having trouble zeroing a new scope. After getting some gas and driving for about 15 minutes the phone rang - it was my wife - screaming that someone was trying to get in the house. I could hear banging in the background. I told her to call 911 and to find a place to hide - I also told her where my Marlin 336 30-30 is (although she has never shot anything bigger then a .22). She screamed loudly and there was a bang and the phone went dead. Needless to say I flipped out. I made a quick u- turn and in a small snow storm headed back at around 80mph.
I called 911 and reported the incident and they had a sherif's deputy listening in to the call and he was on his way. - about 20 minutes out. Called the house back several times and there was no answer. Tried her cell phone. No answer.
As I had 15 - 20 minutes I called my father who is a retired law enforcement officer. He instructed me to call 911 back and let them know that I was getting to the house and I was armed with my 10/22 takedown.
I arrived to find the screen door ripped off the hinges and the main door intact. I ran around the side and found the deck door intact. Then came around the front and was about to kick the door in. Just then a sheriff's deputy flew into our driveway. He jumped out with his gun drawn and I threw my rifle on the ground. He quickly saw that I was the home owner and quickly unloaded the rifle and approached the house - the door then opened and my wife came out hysterical. Some troopers showed up and they did a search and did not find anyone.
It turns out that about 15-20 minutes after I left my wife heard a loud bang from the front and thought it might be me so she approached the door to see someone turning the knob and trying to force their way in. She called me and there was another loud bang - apparently they were trying to kick the door in. She then started to scream, then dropped the phone and ran to the back room to hide. I thought the line was cut or worse but she was just following my directions. She did not have her cell phone so she did not want to come out of her spot in the closet to get it.
The sheriff said that they have had some home invasions as well and robberies recently. They believe some meth freaks are coming from the larger towns nearby to find easy victims and to rob "weekend" homes. The area is pretty desolate so it would seem to be a good area for some psycho to come out to mess with decent hard working Americans. They must have seen me leave and thought the house was empty or knew she was in there by herself.
I learned a lesson - I need to take home defense VERY seriously. I am picking up a Mossberg 20 gauge home defense model now. My wife will also take a more active role in learning and planning how to deal with self/home defense.
Again, sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure people understand that the threats are real and I want to make sure that my family is better prepared in the future. If you are reading this and wondering if you should take it seriously please learn from my experience.