On Saturday night there were nine break in around my house. The brok into my next door neighbors house and took a laptop and a knife set from their kitchen. All while they were home. They didn't find out until the next morning when they went downstairs and it was freezing cold inside.

My cams grabbed a few distant pictures of the guy, and a suspicious car that wen up and down the street slowly 12 minutes before the guys walked in front of my house and started looking in my windows.

I have three cams on my house, all aimed at areas my kids play in, so I can keep an eye on them when I am inside or in the backyard. I re-aimed them yesterday towards all entry areas.

I deal with this a lot with my clients, and this is the first time I have ever had to deal with it personally. I am grabbing two more cams at GenIV and picking up a firearm tomorrow. I live in the suburbs of Cincy, in a usually crime free area. My wife is freaked out. I slept with a hatchet last night.

Don't get a gun unless you have experience with them or will go to a range with an instructor and become fully competent. An alternative, send the NRA $25 and get a couple of their stickers to put on your car.

Before you pick up your cameras, pitch your neighbors. Good chance to get a couple sales.

Do what Joe Biden says.. Just get a shotgun and blast it out the front door.. lol

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Suggestion:

Taurus Judge with Crimson Trace Lasergrip

...and as mentioned, find a range, get some training (if needed) and practice.

I hate the judge. Don't like the size because of the long cylinder. But it is a good choice for defense. I would like to set up some drywall and try different .410 rounds to see how they perform

Is a .410 going to stop anything quickly? I keep a 12 gauge close and ready with buckshot.

Yes, it will. You can also load .45 long colts in it too. Although, if you are going to do that, it's back to why go with something with such a big cylinder

I've got an old Colt M1911 45 nearby.

Not real accurate, but if you hit something, there's not much left.


Also have a 22 rifle loaded with LR 22 hollow point.

This actually works really well.

I grew up in Chicago. Never worried about anything until we found wood chips/shavings outside the front door where a guy withs crowbar tried to get in. My girlfriend had just moved in with me and she was home alone that day. Luckily our building was 100 years old and had a real door with a great deadbolt. That was the day we filled out FOID applications.

I just reminded myself of the time a guy was going through my closet when i was 5. My brother yelled out "can you keep it down" and scared the guy off. He had been in every bedroom of a 4 bed apartment and stolen jewelery and cash. He was running down the street carrying this large king kong piggy bank as my grandfather chased him. He finally dropped king kong and got away.

This is what everyone has told my girlfriend. Shotgun for home defense. So we bought a shotgun.

Picking up a Walther P22 from my dad today. I have experience with guns, my dad is out of town for a while, so he won't need it. His other gun is a 38 special. Too big. I like the P22. I know its just a 22, but if I unload the mag, it will still hurt. If I were buying one, it would be the SW MP 9mm compact.

Agreed. You need training and experience. You need to know your weapon in and out. I've taken many courses and even have training cert's under my belt, and one of the best experiences I ever had was taking a Krav Maga law enforcement course on Reality Based Training scenarios from the USKMA in Colorado. When you are under pressure from a variety of unusual stresses presented as a training exercise it's amazing to see how many people actually shut down and get stuck in an ooda loop or even worse make the wrong decisions.

Other things you can do to thwart an unwanted entry and potentially avoid conflict would be:

*Get a large dog bowl and place outside your home.
*Motion lights
*Alarm/siren

Thieves will usually go for easy targets with less risk involved. Make your house very risky in their eyes.

You may also want to inquire into a entry level personal defense course which focuses on your learning to gauge your surroundings and avoid mannerisms which would make you look like a target to victimize, as well as CQB and disarming moves. And perhaps come up with a plan with your family on what to do, and/or an exit plan and practice it several times.

Now if you do get a firearm, go to a range and test a few out. Typically Revolvers and Shotguns are the best form of home defense. The downfall of a shotgun could be the length of the barrel in a Close Quarters situation. The downfall of a handgun could be lack of aim. Again, train! Oh and definitely sell your neighbors on camera systems.

A single well placed shot and the burglar won't burgle no mo. Plenty enough to ruin any burglar's day.

Or keep a can of the long shot wasp spray by your bed. Supposed to work like mace.

Meet with ALL of the people on your street and get them involved in securing the area. In my subdivision, people report thefts from their garage, car or yard when they didn't close the garage door, lock the car or put things away, leaving laptops, bikes, wallet/purse/check book in plain view. I have been listening to the scanner app on my phone and I'm amazed by what is happening here. Car jacking/theft with the chase that follows, groups of teen-aged guys walking through alleys with their hoods up, gunfire, etc.

We had a woman going door to door, asking for money after 9PM, wearing all dark clothes. I heard calls about her on a few different nights and the first time, I drove around the area, to see if I could find her and follow until the PD showed up. That wasn't a problem- I saw at least 4 squads cruising around and apparently, she got away. A few days later, she made the mistake that got her arrested- she went to the police chief's house. DOH!