Strangers with Guns
 

Tonight, after a lovely dinner with my in-laws I arrive home with my wife and notice a man standing rather like he was at attention directly across the street from our house. This is a man I have never seen before, on a block in a small town where people know each other. We just do. He is a very grizzly looking man, and if I had to guess I would put my money on homeless. He is wearing mostly green worn out jumpsuit style outfit with a chest length grey beard and appears quite unkempt.

It was likely the leers from us nosy neighbours that sent him off, but he went inside a house where we thought we know all the occupants but had never seen him before. The house has not been for sale to our knowledge. When he went back in he left the door open. It is 39 F outside.

This wouldn't really be newsworthy, except when he turned to go back in we (my wife and I) both notice the same thing, he was carrying what appeared to be a small bore rifle on his person. Ordinarily, I don't care that people have guns. Whatever. To each his own. But, for some reason, this dude with a gun makes me uncomfortable, he doesn't seem normal.

So we went inside and my wife, evidently somewhat less perturbed than I am about the situation, is downstairs watching the Capitals hockey game. I took myself upstairs to the unlit front room and wanted further observation on this fellow. Sure enough, he is sitting just off to the side of the window facing out, watching. What he is watching I cannot tell, but based on his position and posture it could not be anything inside the house. I guess I shouldn't judge since I'm doing the same thing, just with the lights off.

I do not like this. I have my phone and have my shotgun loaded across my desk behind my keyboard. I am nervous. If I'm being honest with myself, he gives me the willies. Tonight, I will likely not go to bed or if I do, I will get nearly to no sleep. I will sleep lightly and not until I investigate every sound at gunpoint.

I hate it when this happens, it seems like such a small thing, but once the loop gets going it feeds on itself and I can't stop it. Some people would call me paranoid, others cautious (although these folks are probably called paranoid themselves). I think it's the sort of garden variety paranoia everyone has, even if they don't want to admit it.

So, what say you, TFP? What would you do in my situation? Have you ever been in a similar situation? Anything that makes you nervous or anxious unreasonably? What sort of people push your buttons and make you uncomfortable even though you know they shouldn't?

Honestly, I'd go with your spidey-sense here. If a situation seems wrong to you, then there's a decent chance that something is wrong. I'd call the 911, and explain the situation. I would be clear that I've seen nothing illegal, and I haven't been threatened by this guy, but the situation just seems strange, and ask if they would mind sending a patrol car to the area 'just in case'. I'm all for the right to bear arms, and the right to be a weirdo (the 6 3/4 ammendment to the constitution, if I'm not mistaken). I would hope the cops wouldn't harass people for no reason, but if nothing bad is hapenning, it can't hurt to have a little bit of police presence in the area. That is, assuming the cop they send out isn't some trigger-happy nutjob himself and doesn't overreact.

ehh, just go to sleep. if he was out for you, you would know it. in my old neighborhood guns were all over. i seen illegal mexicans carrying them out in the open all the time. i never got fucked with, not once. and i was the only white kid in my neighborhood. people wanted to give me shit daily.

i know no one wanted my blood, so i feared not. does this man want your blood? did you screw his family over in the past? if not, then no worries.

edit: a hit was once put on my family (dont ask.) i crept around in the shubs with a machete and a .38 special in the early a.m. neighbors seen me...they asked no questions, until a few weeks later.

I'm worried about his sinister beard.

...

Your facial hair just isn't crazy enough, Skafe.

Personally I'd just call the police, they'll either arrest him, chase him away or figure out that he's supposed to be there and leave him alone. Unless he's done something wrong, like rob the house he entered, then it shouldn't be a problem and you'll sleep better in the end.

This reminds of something that happened to me a few years ago. I'd driven from Maine to Tennessee to visit my brother and pretty much drove straight through so when I arrived I looked like I'd just crawled out of the swamp. My hair was long, stringy and unwashed, my beard was disheveled, and I'm wearing dirty camo pants, a t-shirt with a hole in the front and black boots. Well my brother and sis in law live in a pretty up scale (ie snot head) neighborhood, so I stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway I'd only been there for a few hours when I stepped out in the garage for a smoke (the door itself was open)...my brother keeps his guns in the garage so I picked up one of his rifles just to look it over, paced around with it for no reason what so ever, finished the smoke, put the rifle back and went inside. A few minutes later the cops show up, one of the neighbors thought I must have been breaking into his house! It was quickly smoothed over but pretty fun none the less.

I would either call the police or confront him, depending on my read of the situation.

I would not leave an armed man standing outside my house while I slept.

This is what I'm talking about. Through all of it, I had this nagging sense that I was just being unreasonable. He really wasn't doing anything illegal(that I could see) and the last thing I wanted to do was bother the police with another 'suspicous persons' report. They have more important things to do that pester law abiding citizens because they don't fit in.

Anyway, nothing came of it, which is what my head expected all along. Just another restless night for myself.

See, this is probably what really set me off. He knew we were staring, we knew that he knew. He didn't seem to want that and went inside, it looked like he was uncomfortable with our watching. He didn't scramble or anything, but it was hurried. It felt like he didn't want to be seen.

Oh well, much ado about nothing.

There's something to be said about using your instincts, but he might also have rushed in because he didn't want the cops showing up and bothering him about his guns either.

Stay safe bud.

Hope your neighbors aren't slowly being raped, tortured, and murdered by a deraged home invader...

???

Oops. Said "are", meant "aren't". Fixed that for me!

^ ahahaha ^

oh, im laughing way to hard at that.

Play it safe bro. Keep the hand cannon locked and loaded. Better safe than sorry with the police call, that's why we have police. Something was definitely up with the guy, who knows what, but you did the right thing. I would have kept an eye on him the entire time I could see him.

I would've just called the police, explained to them the situation, and asked them to do a wellness check on your neighbors.

I also would've kept my own door locked, my shotgun and Bullmastiff handy, and kept an eye out to make sure they actually did stop by.

+1
The police like to be notified of that kind of thing. Trust me, I've known a lot, they don't mind. Its a toss up though whether you should have used 911 or not. You can reach them by a non-emergency line. Talk to them about it, and see what they say.

I wouldn't have been worried much about myself, more for my neighbors. If my neighbor saw a crazy looking dude with a gun walk into my house, I'd definitely like them to check on me or call the cops.

This is a situation where knowing the local law enforcement agency's non-emergency number comes in handy. I keep it in my cell phone.