So, I was laying in bed last night, and me and my wife both heard a noise, like something dropping on the floor.  We both whisper in unison "what was THAT?"  Now and then we hear something and it's usually the house creaking or whatnot but I usually make a sweep through the house and check on the kid and all.  This seemed a bit louder though, I grabbed the 12 gauge and slowly made my way through the house, checking on the kid first of course.  So, I'm all ready to go back to bed, when I glance out the window and there is a frickin COP rolling veerry slowly through the neighborhood, with his spotlight occasionally on.  OH CRAP!!! I'm thinking, maybe they're looking for some whacko and he's trying to get in my house.  So, I made an extremely thorough search of the house, checking all doors & windows etc. and made sure all exterior lights were on.  All was ok (sorry for all of waiting for me to detail how I ventilated the perp with 00 buck)  I'm pretty sure something just fell down on it's own, and the cop had nothing better to do so he's just putting around the neighborhood.  I did call the police station to ask them if something was up but they are closed at that hour, with a recording to call 911 if there is an emergency.  And no, we don't have an alarm system installed yet, as we just moved in.  

Room clearing LOOKS like fun on TV. As I have had to do this at home after a break in I can say it only looks fun. Glad no one was in the house for real. Better luck on using the 00 buck next time.......   [;)]

If a noise is bad enough for me to get my gun I'm not a happy camper.  The same thing happened to me, I spent almost 30 min. listening for strange noises and clearing the house (heart thudding).  The next morning my wife came in after getting the paper only to tell me we got egged (little bastards, we were totally new to the neighborhood and couldn't have pissed anyone off).

Proof positive you moved to a good place to live. If the police station only has daytime hours, the local crime situation is probably domestic disputes and DUis.

That is never fun, but it is a good thing to do. Better safe than sorry.  Wherever I have lived, I have always formed a tactical plan for clearing, defending, and escaping if necessary.  You need to get a good idea of how and what order you are going to clear your home, and your defensive priorities (ie Kids rooms etc.)  You should also have multiple scenarios in mind.  If intruder is believed to be here, I do this, if here, I do that. Plan according to those priorites, layout, etc. etc.  And remember, depending on the layout of your home, sometimes clearing is just not a good option unless absolutely necessary.  Example, when I was staying with my folks, their lower floor was very wide open and the staircase from upstairs came down in the middle basically.  The layout made going downstairs to clear very dangerous as there were just too many angles from which you were exposed.  One man can't cover it all.  My primary plan was to be perched upstairs which gave me about 90% coverage of the foyer, about 10% coverage of the rooms to its left and right, and anyone coming up the stairs would be walking right below and with their backs to me until the staircase turned.  Overall strategy, sit tight there until police arrive, threat has subsided or if threat enters those areas, give one chance to surrender if conditions allow this with relative safety, or perforate bad guy numerous times.  Field of fire was perfect also, downward angle assured no chance of stray rounds hurting innocents.  And when you are clearing....

For god sakes remember to slice the pie.  Slow and methodical.

BTW, don't just plan this...practice it.

Mike

DakotaKid, Mike,
Are you really Tackleberry?
jk     [;)]

[img]http://images.andale.com/f2/112/111/7410906/1021923612560_policeacademy6.jpg[/img]

[size=5]FREEZE MISTER![size=5]

Slice the pie? I have heard the term before... what does it mean in this context?

I had a similar experience just Saturday night. I was laying on the couch watching TV and fell asleep. I became aware of something tapping on the metal frame of our screen door. I wasn't imagining it, because I looked at both my dogs and they had their ears perked up and both were looking right at the front door. This tapping started and stopped TWICE. This is taking place about 12:45 AM. The second time even got a couple of muffled "woofs" from the dogs. So I grab the Sig off the coffee table and hop over to the side of the window and peek out through a crack in the blinds. It's dark at the doorway, I can't see a thing, so I crouch down, go past the window, and flip on the porch light. I didn't hear anything run away (we have a rock front yard, it'd kinda noisy). I then go into my girlfriend's office, because this affords me a different view of the front of the house, and the blind spot at the front door (where I can't see from the front window). Nothing there. Also checked the view from her daughter's bedroom window. Nothing. I still can't figure out what it was, unless someone saw me get off the couch through a tiny crack in the window blinds and split before I got to the window. Both the cats were asleep in the garage. Good thing the GF and her daughter were out of town, 'cause right after that I went and got the Beretta and the AR out of the safe and positioned them handily around the couch. If someone would have come over to visit, they'd have thought I was losing it.

Not sure where SNorman lives, but most of the communities in King County are on a central dispatching system anyway.
    The whole Seattle area does seem rather low crime though, compared to where I was born, Youngstown Ohio. Not sure what the stats are now, but for quite a few years running, Youngstown had the 4th highest per capita murder rate in the U.S. The local natives here will tell you things are bad now, but I doubt that they get out much ;)

We just moved to Duvall (we pronounce it DO-vaul, it sounds more like hickville that way hehe).  The word is there are two cops in town.  And they are very frequently patrolling the nearby neighborhood areas.  There is a small newsletter for the area, the police roundup is very humerous.  Usually just kids messing around or a drunk or two.

Exactly!

Edited to add:

We've been married almost 5 years now, and this is the first time I've ever cleared the house with a pounding heart.

Similar thing happened with us. Loud bang! I'm up and moving through the house with a 12 g pump, naked as a lark. After clearing the upstairs, I take a piss in the upstairs bathroom with the gun in my left hand trained down the stairs. Just like a puppy when you get excited. About that time my wife rounds the corner looks in and starts laughing her ass off. Trust me, me naked with a "gun" in both hand is a site to see.  

Glad all was ok, as it was here.

You need a dog. My dogs know what the normal sounds and neighbors around around my home are and unless they react and bark I go back to sleep. They used to bark at the squirrel that gets in my attic, but since I haven't shot him they figure he/she is part of the house now and ignore it when it runs around at night.

So now we know where they got the name for those movies....

Isn't this kind of a kata you see in TV shows when cops do entries?

Maximize the use of cover.  When entering a room or coming around a corner, be ready to engage and neutralize targets in the sequence in which they appear.  One target at a time.  It would be the opposite of bouncing into a room like Tigger and spraying bullets in all directions.

[Edited to add:]
That would also include the way you work through a house.  Work room-to-room clearing the way and not presenting your back or flank to bad guys.  Not very easy to do in most houses, due to layout.