This is a true story...
A couple of months back, at 4:33 am I was awakened by my house alarm and my wife.
At about the same time I heard the alarm blaring loudly and my wife saying "Yasir the alarm is going off!" my daughter ran into the room and I told her to just stay here, I scrambled on my bed to get to the safe and realized that I didn't have a pistol on top like I normally do. I usually open my safe each night, and put a pistol that is ready to go on top of it so I can grab it quickly and get busy if needed, but not this time...
So the alarm is blaring, I can't find my key to the safe so I have to input my security code to open it. It didn't take long because I've practiced it multiple times.
During this time, I don't know exactly what is going on, we were in the middle of a rain storm so I didn't' know if someone was actually in my house, or if something to do with the storm had tripped the alarm. I didn't hear anyone rumbling downstairs so I didn't know what to expect. But...during the whole time I wasn't very nervous or afraid.
I got the safe opened and I grabbed the first pistol I got my hands on and it ended up being my 5 shot Ruger LCRx with the 3 inch barrel, not my first choice when it comes to home defense but it would do the job.
I hopped out of bed, readied my firearm in a shooting crouch position and I moved out the bedroom door, down the short hallway, listening for any signs of a disturbance besides my alarm blaring. As I inched around the wall leading to the staircase headed downstairs I started issuing commands "Get the F*&K out of my house!" "hey! get out of my house right now!"
I didn't hear anything besides the alarm, I didn't see anything, I also didn't "feel" like someone was in the house, so I proceeded down the stairs gun at the ready...
When I got downstairs, I first checked the rooms and didn't see anything I turned to the front door and noticed it was cracked open, the mystery is solved.
Apparently when my wife and daughter came back home from their daily runs they forgot to lock the door, and before I went to bed, I didn't check it. Now you may be thinking "what kind of self-defense instructor forgets to lock the door of his own house?" In my defense I went to be bed pretty early, around 9pm and my wife was still up watching tv, and my wife and I always had the understanding that the last one up locks the house up. Well this time we both dropped the ball because I should have checked that door before I went to bed as the protector of my family, my wife could have just checked behind me to make sure I was on point. I'll take full responsibility for that, I should have checked that door.
Lessons learned:
- ALWAYS make sure your doors and windows are locked before you retire for the night, no if and or buts about it.
- Make sure you have your defensive weapon in a place that is easily accessible should you have an intruder
- Make sure your family has a plan on what to do if there is an intruder in the house.
The next piece to this is what if someone actually was in my house? I'm confident that I am capable of doing what needs to be done to protect my family, what about you? Are you that confident? If so that's great we need more people like you in this country but if not...
What are you doing about it? Don't wait until it's too late.
When in doubt, train.
Instructor Yasir