I believe my house was once under attack from home invaders, thwarted by me and my gun. Here’s what happened, plus a few things you should look out for to protect yourself from this very nasty crime.

First let’s get some nomenclature straight that usually irritates we police folks just a bit. Naïve people confuse nouns like burglary, robbery, strong arm robbery, armed robbery and home invasion.

• Burglary: When your residence or business is broken into and no one is at home or work, that is just a burglary NOT a robbery. Robbery is different. 
• Robbery: A robbery in between people. A strongarm robbery is when the robber has no weapon. He may threaten or mess you up. (If he messes you up seriously it might become aggravated robbery). Should the bad man or lady have a weapon, then it becomes armed robbery.
• A home invasion is when a criminal enters your home while you are there. This is very scary as they have more than theft on their mind and such has led to major violent crimes like rape on up to include torturous assault and murder.

I cannot count all the burglaries I have been assigned to in the military police and in Texas police for 26 years, most that time as an investigator. And while I did not, could not solve all of the burglaries, I have worked some home invasions, and I have solved every one of those, including ones involving murders. Each a story for another time and a few appear in my Dead Right There, detective memoirs book (see below).

My incident. When retired, I had a bout with a “head cancer.” It was all successfully removed under the knife. In my recovery at home my head was stitched and bandaged, swollen, and I was drugged and weak while recovering. At the time, in our North Texas county, the news was reporting a series of home invasions. Innocent looking people, usually girls-women, were knocking on doors at night, making up excuses that they needed help and when a resident let them in, suddenly hidden, young men appeared too, secreted beside the door and away from door peepholes, or around the corner of the entry ways. The men would just barge in. Serious criminal chaos would ensue.

Well, when home recuperating from this surgery, in a robe and pajamas, one very cold, winter evening (about 8 p.m.), a knocking befell our front door. My wife Jane walked up to it and through the peephole saw three late teen age, early 20s girls. No males were visible. I walked near the door too.

“What?” I asked.

“Three girls,” she said and felt compelled to open the door. As he reached for the lock… I got a gun…

Well, being a retired cop, being that – at that retirement time of my life, then and still now – numerous criminals I had caught and convicted were serving their terms and steadily getting out of the pen, and I always had and still have various guns around my house in strategic places in case one of these escapees or ex-cons comes to find me. (I have had an alert once from the Tennessee State Police that someone was coming to kill me. Another story.) That aside, given the recent history of our local, county crime, this door knocking was therefore hinky to me, so I immediately pulled out a nearby handy pistola.

She partially opened the door, after only seeing three young women in the peephole and the same three still outside. And I heard one plea to her,

“Help us. My mom dropped us off at the wrong house across the street and we are freezing. Can we come in and call her and get her to come back?”

“Hi, wait just a minute,” Jane said and closed the door over about 99%. When she turned to look at me. I was pointing a gun at the door. I shook my head no.

But, she felt sorry for the girls and re-opened the door quite a bit and started to say she’d call their mom, she’d give them blankets to wait outside, but the first girl barged right in and then…then a guy walked in behind her!

I was still nearby and aimed that gun right at that SOB and said, “Get out or die.”

He froze. He held no weapon. If he’d held one?  A knife, stick or gun? I’d a shot that SOB on the spot. Jane very smartly stepped back. He stopped. The girl stopped too, and they both backed up and out, speechless. Jane shut and locked the door.

“Call the cops,” I immediately told her, which she did. I peered out the window. They were gone. Gun in hand, in the “bootleg” position, arm down, gun down and aimed at the ground, I stepped outside for a moment looking left and right. These abandoned young adults were gone from our long street.

The Allen, TX police arrived, heard the story and I remember them eyeing me up as I was a medical wreck, my right eye area was stitched up and swollen from the outskirts of the surgery and head bandaged. I was in no shape to fight and-or arrest anyone, and I wanted to at least let them know these suspicious people were in the area. The police left and they never found the…however many there were of them…possible home invaders. The poor souls were mistakenly dropped off at the wrong address? Then these suddenly abandoned visitors…so suddenly…drive away?

The totality of circumstances suggested otherwise. But this was, and this is, a common home invasion setup. A ruse at the door.

Ways of home invasions – please take notes to prepare:

• THE SNEAK IN. The suspects secretly inspect your house and enter where they can while you are home. These criminals don’t always ring the doorbell, and they enter in a secret way and surprise you.
• THE FRONT DOOR RUSE. Like the above story. They might be strangers to you with a big smile. Lost? Survey? Salesperson? They might have known you or know someone that knows you from the present or past. One of the home invasion murders I worked involved a suspect that knew the victims. He’d worked on their roof in the past. He’d beaten and left the old couple for dead. One case I worked involved two Las Vegas mobsters that knew “from the grapevine” that the victim has gold bullion at home.
• THE FOLLOW YOU HOME. They might follow you home from say for example – an expensive restaurant (one of my cases). As you pull in your garage and before you close the garage door, they barge in, weapons displayed. 

I know anti-gun people like to proclaim that you shouldn’t have a gun handy at home because in some very rare occasions, presumed home invaders are legit relatives or friends, etc. Here’s a tip, evaluate! And don’t shoot them! Then they complain about handy guns on very rare occasions lead can lead to handy suicides. Then handy guns lead to very rare accidents. All tragedies, yeah. But in the big population picture, like in the United States there are 340 million people, with millions of more guns everywhere and in comparison, these tragic events are still tragic rarities. 

As I warned, home invaders usually have more on their than just simple theft. Usually rape, aggravated assault, torture and murder. I still feel sorry for people in states and countries where they cannot have a gun in their home for combat these home crime times. When you need one? You really, really need one. 

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