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Thought I was being robbed this morning.

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J

John Rabbit

Banned
This is a long story but only because something like this has never happened to me before and it's just been on my mind all day.

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So it's about 8:10 in the morning and I'm in the 2nd bathroom of our apartment so as not to wake up my wife. I hear what sounds like a lot of movement/noise coming from just above/beyond our front door/porch (we live in a two-story apartment building with exterior entrances). I wasn't immediately suspicious as our upstairs neighbors have a young boy and they often make some commotion in the morning as they're getting ready to leave.

I finish up and leave the bathroom and the noise is louder and sounds like it's right outside of my front door (the 2nd bathroom I was using is closer to the front of the apartment than the master bed/bath). It has kind of a...purposeful? sound to it. Not like the random noise from neighbors stomping/moving around; more like somebody is deliberately moving/dragging/manipulating something. I go to the door and look through the peep hole to see if somebody's moving furniture or something. All I can see is what looks like a person standing very close to my door wearing a pillowcase or some kind of bag/garment over their head. They're talking in a low voice to somebody else I can't see and now I hear noise coming from outside the wall of the 2nd bedroom (which is immediately next to the front door/landing. At this point I become convinced we're about to be broken into/robbed.

I start fumbling with my phone trying to unlock it to call the police and make for the master bedroom. I decide instead of fumbling with my phone to wake my wife up, tell her to immediately call the police, and go into our closet where I keep a .38 special in a safe. I get the gun, tell her not to leave the bedroom and head back to the front door with the intention of announcing that I'm calling the police and that I have a gun.

As I get to the door I look again to see if they're still there and I see the same person as before, but standing next to/behind him is the maintenance guy for the property. Wtf? So I bang on the door and ask what the hell they're doing. They kind of jump and tell me they're working on my porch light, as the other lights in the units next to mine weren't receiving power and they wanted to see why ours was the only one still working. I undo the chain on the door and look to see why someone has a pillowcase over their head.

Turns out the guy actually working on the light was standing on a stepladder and was so close to my door that I was seeing the side of his sleeve/shirt. Mind you I was about 5 minutes removed from sleep so I probably wasn't at my sharpest. I'm standing there in my underwear holding a gun and just kind of...stunned. I tell them they absolutely scared the shit out of me and that next time, even if it's early, to please knock and announce their presence. At no point did I aim the gun at them or the door, and I had zero intent to shoot (I just wanted to scare what I thought were burglars) but goddamn what are they thinking making that kind of noise at 8am without telling us about it?

I don't consider myself a paranoid person by any means, but I do have a basic alarm system in the apartment and lately there has been a rash of robberies and gun-related crimes in my otherwise pretty mundane neighborhood/community. I have zero doubt those aspects were playing on my sleepy mind, but for about a good 20-30 seconds I was absolutely convinced we were going to be victims of a home invasion. I'm still just kind of...freaked out about it, several hours later.

Has anything like this happened to someone? Does anyone think I overreacted? I didn't yell at them (other than asking what they were doing) and didn't brandish the weapon toward them (I don't even think they saw it as I kept it lowered and kind of behind me the whole time).

--

TL;DR - Thought I was going to be home invaded, turned out to be maintenance workers tearing apart my porch light at 8am completely unannounced.
 
M

MontyMarx

Neo Member
Boy that could have escalated quickly.

Closest thing to me was a landlord once entered my apartment unannounced and I was still in bed. Thankfully I was under a blanket.
 
X

xDUMPWEEDx

Banned
VuP8fi.gif
 
B

bootsthecat

Banned
John Rabbit said:
but goddamn what are they thinking making that kind of noise at 8am without telling us about it?
Click to expand...

I mean hey, if you were freaked out, you were freaked out...but 8am on a weekday is generally expected to be 'businesstime' where something like this without notification wouldn't really be out of the ordinary. Kids are off to school, daytime workers (most of us?) are off to work, etc by that time. It's not like it was 4-5 am.
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
bootsthecat said:
I mean hey, if you were freaked out, you were freaked out...but 8am on a weekday is generally expected to be 'businesstime' where something like this without notification wouldn't really be out of the ordinary. Kids are off to school, daytime workers (most of us?) are off to work, etc by that time. It's not like it was 4-5 am.
Click to expand...

Yeah 8AM on a weekday is not really some kind of outlandish time to be doing building maintenance work. OP seems paranoid more than anything else.
 
J

John Rabbit

Banned
bootsthecat said:
I mean hey, if you were freaked out, you were freaked out...but 8am on a weekday is generally expected to be 'businesstime' where something like this without notification wouldn't really be out of the ordinary. Kids are off to school, daytime workers (most of us?) are off to work, etc by that time. It's not like it was 4-5 am.
Click to expand...

The time isn't so much the issue as being told about it/announced. The official quiet hours for the property are 10pm - 8am so I'd think at the very least they'd attempt to announce their presence. We have to give permission to enter the unit for any repairs (barring an emergency) so you'd think they would, at the very least, attempt to knock before making a lot of noise.

xxracerxx said:
So what did the cops say when they got there?
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My wife hung up with them/told them false alarm before they sent anybody. They called back 2 minutes later just to be sure she wasn't being forced to say that.

MattKeil said:
Yeah 8AM on a weekday is not really some kind of outlandish time to be doing streetlight work. OP seems paranoid more than anything else.
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This wasn't a street light, this was the porch literally outside my front door. I wouldn't even take a 2nd look at someone out in the street working on a light. It was the proximity to my door/the fact I couldn't clearly see that set me off. Not saying I did the absolute 100% right thing.
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
John Rabbit said:
The time isn't so much the issue as being told about it/announced. The official quiet hours for the property are 10pm - 8am so I'd think at the very least they'd attempt to announce their presence. We have to give permission to enter the unit for any repairs (barring an emergency) so you'd think they would, at the very least, attempt to knock before making a lot of noise.
Click to expand...

They don't have to enter your unit to do so, so they're probably not going to knock or anything. Certainly if I were in their position I would never think someone would mistake fixing the porch light for breaking and entering.
 
N

NoblesseOblige

Banned
Presumably this happened in the day and I'm really uncertain why you would think someone is robbing you. Vast majority of thieves don't do it unless they're absolutely certain a person won't be home.

Edit: Oh, I skimmed over it happening at 8AM. So yeah, really not sure why you jumped to being robbed. Unless that's something common in your neighborhood as of recent.
 
J

John Rabbit

Banned
The Beard said:
You live in an apartment building and your first reaction to noise at 8am is to go full panic mode and grab your gun?
Click to expand...

Yes the part where I first investigated the door without a weapon or thought of being robbed is definitely full blown panic.

WickedLaharl said:
You shouldn't own a gun when you are that paranoid.
Click to expand...
I'll definitely learn from this morning and stop jumping to conclusions so quickly. But I don't think my actions were so egregious as to be called "too paranoid". I didn't know who was immediately outside my home at a time that is normally quiet, in a neighborhood that's had a recent rise in robbery and gun crime, and at no point did I raise the gun or intend to fire a single shot. It's not like I immediately freak out when I see/hear my neighbors on the stairs or a delivery person arrives.


I am laughing at some of these gifs and bad puns though.
 
D

Dali

Member
8am?

Jeez dude you ever consider a career in the police force? The world is alive and people are doing shit at 8.
 
R

RiggyRob

Member
John Rabbit said:
You do know most burglaries occur during the day right?


There's a guy in building 5 who's got several rifles. But I guess I can settle for 2nd place.
Click to expand...

No burglar will attempt to rob someone at 8am. It's too early for people to have left the house, and it's too late for them to be asleep.
 
J

John Rabbit

Banned
RiggyRob said:
No burglar will attempt to rob someone at 8am. It's too early for people to have left the house, and it's too late for them to be asleep.
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My complex is usually pretty empty by then. Rush hour is about 6-8am so most people have left by then. But whatever, obviously I acted foolish and I won't do it again.

Mammoth Jones said:
Next time just yell "The fuck you doing?" immediately. Don't assume. Identify.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm taking this as my lesson for the day.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
Next time just yell "The fuck you doing?" immediately. Don't assume. Identify.

John Rabbit said:
My complex is usually pretty empty by then. Rush hour is about 6-8am so most people have left by then. But whatever, obviously I acted foolish and I won't do it again.
Click to expand...

Meh. It's not that big of a deal. Did you point the gun at the door? Was your finger on the trigger? Or did you just get the gun and have it just incase?
 
J

John Rabbit

Banned
Mammoth Jones said:
Next time just yell "The fuck you doing?" immediately. Don't assume. Identify.



Meh. It's not that big of a deal. Did you point the gun at the door? Was your finger on the trigger? Or did you just get the gun and have it just incase?
Click to expand...

I never raised the gun at all. I only had it at my side (aimed at the floor) and my finger against the barrel. The few times I've fired it I was with my wife's father who's a former Vietnam vet and drilled it into me that you never raise a gun if you don't intend to shoot, and you never put your finger on the trigger until you're absolutely ready to fire. My plan was only to announce that I had it, but I figured it's worth actually having said gun in your possession if you're going to say something like that.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
I woke up the other day to someone opening rooms door. was scared to death. Turns out my roommate had someone crash on the couch and the person got mixed up on whose room was whose and though it was my roommates
 
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