Preparedness for a home invasion

The subject of home invasion came up in another thread...

If someone were to break into your home while you were inside, how prepared are you and is your home for defense? Are you capable, (physically and mentally) to fight? Do you have weapons available, (dedicated or improvised)? Would you retreat to a safe room? Would you escape the whole house? Would you surrender if ordered by an intruder? Would you attack? How do you think you'd fair in an attack?

For this discussion, seconds matter, and police are minutes away.

Bullgrit

Not at all prepared. That said, I'm reasonably fit, and have a dog, so I'm not the ideal target. There would be no firearms involved on either side; and burglars avoid places with dogs as they're better than burglar alarms. There's no way anybody could achieve anything in the few minutes it takes the police to show up.

Hmmm. So I've changed my mind. Very prepared. I have a dog! It's honestly not even something that *ever* crosses my mind.

I don't know that anyone who didn't carry a weapon on their person 24/7/365 could ever be prepared for a home invasion. I own firearms that are safely locked away, as is required by Canadian law. I have a miscellany of knives, bayonets, swords, bows, and a 2 metre spear. Given 10 minutes I could be chain armoured and armed with a "boom stick", doing a fair impersonation of Bruce Campbell in "Army of Darkness." Doesn't matter. Your door is broken down and you're hammered to the ground in seconds, so all the preparation in the world isn't likely to do you a whit of good.

It's honestly not even something that *ever* crosses my mind.

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I've considered defense/attack strategies for pretty much any place I've entered more than once, (home, office, mall, restaurant, etc.). I've planned tactics against home intruders, terrorist attacks, and a zombie apocalypse. I always assumed my thinking on this stuff was because I was a gamer, but apparently it's not a common "game" for all gamers.

Bullgrit

Bullgrit said:

I've considered defense/attack strategies for pretty much any place I've entered more than once, (home, office, mall, restaurant, etc.)

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Wow! That's a mindset beyond my ability to even imagine!

Bullgrit said:

I've considered defense/attack strategies for pretty much any place I've entered more than once, (home, office, mall, restaurant, etc.). I've planned tactics against home intruders, terrorist attacks, and a zombie apocalypse. I always assumed my thinking on this stuff was because I was a gamer, but apparently it's not a common "game" for all gamers.

Bullgrit

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I scan for escape routes whilst imagining myself a high stealth secret agent/ninja who might need to make my way out of a building with brutal efficiency, which no doubt stems from a gamer imagination

The ninja fantasy also extends to using various household items as weapons - including dead fish. I don't think I've got the mental prep or physical prowess to actually do it, but then I'm fairly big so a blunt thump'll still help

It doesn't enter my mind. From conversations with USians on the matter, I checked stats. Basically, break-ins happen people are gone. The targets are usually elderly people and the invasion is committed by someone they know. In 2012 there were 5,500 breaks-in Canada. In 2014 there were 28 homicides in Montréal.

I am not worried not worried at all. If it happens, well, such is life.

I'm with Morrus on this one. Even when I lived in Minnesota, it was never on my mind. In fact, our doors were always unlocked.

Here in the Netherlands, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrant my time worrying about it. I couldn't find the statistics on home invasions specifically. The Central Bureau of Statistics lump theft and burglary using force in one category. So that's robberies and muggings along with home invasions.
From what I understand, people that enter your house with the intent to inflict injury are known to you, most of the time. It seems a rare thing that someone would randomly go to a stranger's house to hurt someone inside. I understand things like that have happened and I don't want to diminish the trauma those victims have suffered. But to put it crassly, it's too rare for me to give two diddlies about.

I guess I feel a sense of security, being a rugby player and having practiced martial arts for the better part of my life. I never get bothered on the streets, even in the "rougher" neighborhoods where I used to live. It may be a false sense of security because I know how easy it is to bring me down. But it lets me sleep well.

So, zero preparedness on my part.

Morrus said:

Wow! That's a mindset beyond my ability to even imagine!

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I'm probably midway between Morrus and Bullgrit.

I don't plan out every place I go into, but I do at times consider the places I am at and whether I am in the best defensible status.


Generally speaking, burglars want empty homes, not occupied ones. So generally speaking, nobody's getting a home invasion by burglars.

The guys who will hit my home, will do so because they think I have money, access or information. No doubt they followed me home from the bank or know what I do for a living and what I have access to.

As we've been preparing to adopt, all my toys are put away, so it'll be a lot harder to just grab a pointy thing...

Dogs are useful as a deterrent, but they can be thwarted by familiarity, food or fear. A home invader knows you have a dog. They're prepared to bash its head in, which will also intimidate you.

My alarm and camera system act as a better tier of deterrent. A bad guy will hit a house with no dog before he hits one with a dog. He'll go hit a house with a dog before he'll hit one with an alarm and camera system.

When the bad stuff goes down, it gets complicated. I'm an out of shape martial artist. I can fight to an extent. Certainly better than somebody untrained, and likely a lot more dangerous. It is easier for me to kill you than it is to try to disable you with a fancier, riskier move.

A good chunk of home invasions are ruses at the front door. Somebody knocks, you answer, they force their way in through you. In which case, I have proximity, which is useful for hand to hand. If they have a gun, that'll be tricky, depending on if they stick it through the door or shoot through the door. If they shoot through, I can fall back, hopefully getting missed, and maybe continue to jam up the door way. If I have my gun, I can shoot back from the prone position. If they try to shove their arm with the gun through the door, I can step offline from the barrel and use a number of wrist grabs/gun disarms on them.

A good chunk of it is winging it, based on where you are, what's between you and them, and what else is going on (who else is home, etc). If I forestall entry long enough, my wife can call the cops.

I can throw books...lots of books...also have a couple of swords...hand crossbow...I may be screwed but do think I could perform delaying actions until the police show up.

Gee, I hope they respond, as my location is on the line between two counties and two towns, sometimes jurisdiction comes to play.