A Vent...

[Netpackrat]

So, I'm out in the garage a little while ago, putting the parts for a Werewolf Shorty in the welding jig, and my wife calls my cell (there is no door between my house and the garage) to tell me that Sumdood just stumbled into the front window on his way to the doorstep, and is knocking on the door. She wasn't about to go look herself, so she called me instead. I went out the man door on the side of the garage, and poked my head around the corner, and there is this bald headed black guy standing there with his back turned to me. Shined my light on him (which didn't do much in addition to the motion detecting lights on the house), and hollered that he had the wrong house, and needed to move along. With his back still to me, he mumbled something unintelligible and I repeated a similar command. After a few more seconds of this, he said something about having been beat up. I told him I was calling the cops, and it was his choice whether he wanted to be here or not when they showed up. Went back into my garage and closed the door. At no time did he turn around to face me.

Called 911, gave them the run down and my address; they said they'd get somebody over as soon as they could. After they hung up, called my wife in the house and brought her up to speed, and told her to stay put in the bedroom. Sat down to wait. At one point, I thought I heard a car pull up and voices out by the street, so I poked my head outside, but apparently Sumdood was going door to door, and was on his way back across the street in our direction. Went back inside and locked the door again, called my wife and told her he was still there and to sit tight. Finally, my wife called me to say that the cops were outside, and after I heard them questioning Sumdood, I stepped outside, and one of the cops asked if I knew him. Said no; I was the one who called them, and if they needed me for anything, I'd be inside. Went back inside and waited some more. Finally, a knock on my door, and one of the officers said that he was drunk out of his mind, had gotten beat up somewhere, had no idea where he was, and they were taking him elsewhere. Thanked him and went back inside to try and get back to work.

Gave up after just a couple minutes and came inside to write this vent. I'm all keyed up and my hands are shaking a little. No way I'll be able to weld for at least an hour or two, which is what I am mostly upset about. I'm trying to do precision %$*&^ing work here and random drunk guys pounding on my door, and scaring my wife half to death really isn't helpful. That is all.

[arctictom]

Glad you are OK, aggressive drunks are dangerous and a pain to deal with.

[Denis]

Glad you're both OK. It sounds to me like you did exactly the right thing.

Forget about your welding, and go and spend some time with Mrs NPR - she'll be just as on-edge as you are and she'll need you.

[Netpackrat]

Yeah, she and the cat have been asleep here on the couch with me since shortly after I sat down. I may not make it back out there tonight.

[Bullspit]

You did the right thing. Just think how much worse your night would have been if you had tried to help the guy and ended up having to shoot him if he got crazy belligerent and attacked you.

[rightisright]

You did the right thing

Yep. If he's not acting violent or aggressively trying to get into your house, keep an eye on him and let the po-po do their job.

[Netpackrat]

Glad you're both OK. It sounds to me like you did exactly the right thing.

It turns out that no, I didn't, and that I'm a moron. I mentioned the episode to some guys at work, and one of them asked, why didn't you just go around the back of the house and in the back door.... Duh. My house has a back door, but I hardly ever use it, and it didn't occur to me the whole time to go that way. Told my wife that if something like that ever happens again, to please remind me that our house has a back door... And she said it never occurred to her, either. It's just annoying that I had another option to get into the house where she was besides wrestling with some drunk guy at the front door. Talk about tunnel vision.

Not that what I did was necessarily bad, or that she was defenseless (not hardly), but I was sitting in the garage when I could just as easily have been sitting in the house with her.

[Greg]

Glad you're both OK. It sounds to me like you did exactly the right thing.

It turns out that no, I didn't, and that I'm a moron. I mentioned the episode to some guys at work, and one of them asked, why didn't you just go around the back of the house and in the back door.... Duh. My house has a back door, but I hardly ever use it, and it didn't occur to me the whole time to go that way. Told my wife that if something like that ever happens again, to please remind me that our house has a back door... And she said it never occurred to her, either. It's just annoying that I had another option to get into the house where she was besides wrestling with some drunk guy at the front door. Talk about tunnel vision.

Not that what I did was necessarily bad, or that she was defenseless (not hardly), but I was sitting in the garage when I could just as easily have been sitting in the house with her.

And that's why we do these little after-action reports. You likely won't forget about important features of your own house again.

[mekender]

I came home some months back and there was a guy sleeping in the middle of the road in front of my house...

I called 911 and informed them of the situation and informed the officer that I, the homeowner, was armed just so he was not surprised to see a gun on my hip.

They never even came to talk to me, it was obvious that the guy was drunk and did not know where he was.

[Termite]

Seems to me that if the guy keeps doing this, he may wind up passing out drunk in somebody's yard, and freeze to death.