This story happened Early Friday morning. I have been think about whether to post or not but decided I should discuss it.It's "Oh God it's early" O'clock aka 4:00 am for those that don't have kids. My 4 year old son who had been up and down with coughing fits all night was in my bed when he woke up coughing again and woke himself up again. He cheerfully woke me up and stated that it was time for breakfast and cartoons. After looking at the clock I told him otherwise and convinced him it was too early and to try to go back to sleep. He instead decided it was time to play with the dogs, whom upon being roused at the early hour started licking me in the face which is dog code for "take me outside or clean up my puddles".I got up with young man in tow and let the dogs outside and then decided I should go and make use of the facilities as well. I went to the closest bathroom and after i and the kid had each used the facilities I decided it was time to let the dogs back in and try to get another hour or two of sleep before starting this cycle over again.I opened the door for the dogs again and this is where our story detours into a crappy episode of the twilight zone. Upon re-entering the house the dogs that would usually go straight for the bedroom go around to t hed couch and start sniffing something on it intensely. Thinking they were about to get swatted by one of our cats I tell them to go to bed and the obey. I stare and try to figure out which cat they were about to harass when I start to realize that it is too big to be a cat. I take a couple steps closer and come to the sudden realization that some random mofo is asleep on my couch!I know for a fact that all doors to the house were locked and deadbolted when I went to bed, i had no idea how he had gotten on my couch or even how long he had been there. Neither I, my son, or three dogs of varying age had heard anything in the night. At the time not knowing how he hadf gotten in myy house znd wondering if he had somehome just stumbled in drunk my sole purpose was to get him out of my house as fast as possible in order to protect my son.I quietly and quickly usher my son back to my room where I throw on my pants and retrieve my ccw handgun (S&W .45 Shield) from the closet safe. I sit my son on the bed and tell him to stay put as I grab my phone. I get two steps down the hall and my son is suddenly by my side and refusing to listen to me about going back to bed. I tell him to at least stay quiet and stay right beside me.I turn on the living room light and unlocked the front door which was still locked and secured just as I had left it after my wife had left to work the night shift at 9:30 the night before. I side step and start to yell loudly to wake up the random asshat that was snoring on my couch. After 30 seconds or more of shouting that he was in the wrong house and needed tyo wake up and leave he finally stirred and sat up with one of my couch throw pillows over his face. He said nothing and did not move again. I shouted again and asked how he got in my house. He did not answer and did not move. At that point I realized he was not going to leave easily and dialled 911 and explained to dispatch that there was a stranger in my house and I needed police there immediately. While I was giving them my address the guy suddenly stood up but still kept the pillow over his face. I was about 6 feet from him. I pulled my gun in closer to my body and stepped towards him and ripped the pillow away. Getting a quick but decent look at his face and stepped back. He slurred out "I'm sorry" which endeed up being the only two words he uttered during the whole event. Dispatch said that officers were in route and the guy suddenly starts stumbling for the front door I had opened moments earlier. I decided that I couldn't safely hold or stop the guy with my son being so close to me. I held the .45 on him as he walked and told hiim not to come towards me.He opened the door and strolled out. I followed him from 10 feet back to the edge of my house not wanting to l save my son alone for long and was able to tell dispatch which direction he was headed and what street he was on and he suddenly starts running as fast as he can knoiwing the police are on their way.Dispatch says officers will look around for him and asked if I still wanted them to cokme to my house after they looked. I said of course I want them to come by. While waiting for the police I check and clear the house and discover his entry point. He had jumped a 7 foot fence into our back yard and removed a window air conditioner unit from the kitchen window and had crawled into the house quietly enough to not disturb anyone. He had not touched anything or opened any doors just crawled in and laid down on the couch.Officers arrived after about 8 to 10 minutes and said that they had not seen anyone in the area but would set up some more frequent patrols in the neighborhood. They dusted the window unit for prints but found none meaning he had wiped it down before coming into the house. They searched my back yard shed and garage because I had not thought to clear them before the police arrived. The officers were happy that my son and I were safe and said that the guy was lucky I didn't shoot him.As of the time I write this the suspect has not been found and likely will not be arrested.Lessons learned: my first mistake was not securing the window unit in to where the window could not be raised. This was an easy, quick, and quiet point of entry for him that did not raise any alarms at all. I had unplugged it the day before to let it drain so I could put it up for the winter.Second I should have called police and gotten myself and son out of the house and to safety and let them wake him up as they put cuffs on him. If he had woken up belligerent and angry and put up a fight I would have had to fight or shoot him with my son basically attached to my hip. Which is a terrifying thought.Dogs that are protective and big do no good when all three are locked in the bedroom with you instead of out in the house where they can ward off random idiots that think Windows are an acceptable entry portal. From now on at least one or all the dogs will be loose in the house to at least provide an early warning system.Thirdly protecting your family is a completely different mindset than just protecting yourself. I have had several people (including a police officer friend of my wife) say that i should have just shot him or held him at gun point until the police got there and that if I had a gun I should have been willing to use it. If it was just me in the house i would have been fine standing between him and the door and barking commands or shooting him if he had reached for a weapon. With my son right beside me and unable to protect himself I approached it from a completely different perspective of "just get out of my house". If he had taken a single step towards me or my son aggressively I would have shot him until he decided that it was a bad idea to continue but I could not risk a fight with my child on the room.Lastly I moved my small gun safe from the closet to my nightstand so I don't have to go through another door across the room in the middle of the night.TL;DR - woke up to some random fucktard sleeping on my couch. Made some mistakes and learned some lessons about defending family vs self. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2jcCdxh
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