Early last Sunday morning, about 1:30 a.m., I was sleeping lightly in our house near the waterway, when I heard a strange “thump, thump” noise coming from somewhere inside or outside of our house, and near our bedroom.  I turned on my back in order to hear well. I thought it may have been a squirrel. But when I heard it a second time near a different bedroom window I decided to wake my wife. We both lay still. Suddenly a louder sound came from just outside our bedroom wall in the living room area next to our indoor swimming pool. My wife jumped out of bed, threw on her robe, and before I could stop her, opened the locked bedroom door, flipped on the living room light, and shouted loudly: “Get the shotgun Honey, and call 911!” While I was getting my shotgun from the closet, my wife heard another loud sound in our patio area as furniture was being knocked over.

 I grabbed my chrome plated, Winchester, pump action 12 gauge shot gun I keep in the closet and rushed through the bedroom door to protect my wife. I always keep it semi-loaded with four shotgun shells. The first shot would be a slug bullet, about 3/4 inch diameter, which is plenty big enough to bring down the largest man up close. The second and third are buckshot loads good for deer hunting in case I miss with the slug. The forth is bird shot, which shoots a wide pattern in case my first three shots miss. I stepped through the door and immediately pump-cocked the gun, which was already loaded but left in a half-way cocked position. “Ke-chunk, ke-chunk” it went loudly, which has got to be the worse sound a thief could hear. I stood there at the bottom of the stairs leading to our upstairs, and faced west toward the sliding glass doors, so I could cover both the stairs and the sliding glass doors going out to our patio and pool area. At that moment we actually thought someone may have already gained entry and were upstairs. Not seeing anything immediately, I gave my wife the gun (she’s actually a better shot than I am) and proceeded to the phone to call 911. I admit my voice was a little shaky as I told the operator, who answered after only two rings, where we were, what had happened, and could they send a deputy sheriff immediately.

I stuck another gun, a 38 caliber pistol in my pocket and came back out of the bedroom, taking the shotgun from my wife as she went to the front of the house to wait for the police. Two deputy sheriffs were at our house within five minutes. Deputy Bishop went upstairs first, searching thoroughly before declaring it “clean”. We then started looking around the patio and found the place the thief had entered. It was a sliding glass door at the corner next to our bedroom which we had neglected to properly secure, as it was covered with a large stained glass piece of art work my wife had made many years ago. The thief had popped open that door and pushed the stained glass piece forward about 10 inches. Unfortunately for him, we also have a baby grand piano in that corner which he was also pushing against. The piano slowed him down long enough for us to get up and into the same room. My wife’s flipping on the lights and shouting “Get the shotgun, Honey…and call 911!” apparently had its desired effect and he, or they, decided to make a quick exit, stumbling over patio furniture on the way out. The police found two other places they had tried to enter before selecting that particular sliding glass door.

Are there lessons to be learned from this experience? There sure are. The first is making sure you have complete security in ALL windows and doors. Thieves are experts at finding an unsecured opening.  We had extra locking pins and round wood blocking barriers in all the other sliding glass doors. It was only this one door, because it was covered by my wife’s stained glass work, which we did not have properly secured, and the thief quickly found it. Lesson one: Make sure all doors are properly secured.

Lesson Two: Although we have an alarm system, we had not armed it before going to bed. Big mistake. She thought I’d done it, and I thought she’d done it. Don’t make such assumptions. Set up a system and follow it. Lesson three: Be careful who knows when you are going to be away. My wife and I had been on a trip Thursday and Friday celebrating our 38th wed-ding anniversary. There were construction workers working on the outside of our house and our next door neighbor’s on Friday. Some of them knew we were gone. If it was related to one of them, they probably thought we’d be gone the whole weekend. Make sure no one knows except trusted neighbors or family when you’re going to be away.

 And last, but not least, Lesson Four: Make sure you have the means to protect yourself if need be, and know how to use it. I’ve owned my Winchester chrome plated 12 gauge shotgun for about 30 years, but have not actually shot it in several years. For a moment, standing at the bottom of our stairs thinking I might need to pull the trigger, I was worried whether I had the safety on or off. It was off and ready to fire. But for a moment I was uncertain, and that moment might have made a big difference had the thief decided to stay and charge me. In other words, if you’re going to have a gun, you need to know how to use it, and practice occasionally. You also need to let the police know when you call that you have a gun in hand, so they don’t mistake you for an adversary and act accordingly.

Finally, even though I didn’t have to use it, I was sure glad to have that 12-gauge on my side last Sunday morning, Thank you, Mr.Winchester.

David Eller
Publisher