Need some advice guys.  My house was broken into today (just finished the police report).  All the person got was 1 rifle but he saw the others.  He found the spare key to the safe that only I knew where it was hidden.  He has the key and I know he'll be back to get the rest.  What would you guys do.  My first thought is to wait and blow the s.o.b. away when he returns.  Not sure on self defense laws so I need some advice.  Thanks in advance.

-Darrick

Do you think you could get your hands on any nitro gel and a mercury switch? Would be a nice surprise to leave for him in the safe.

Can't help you with the self defense laws in your state, but why don't you call some locksmiths and see if they can come change the lock for you?

Michael

I encourage you to take advantage
of any free State and Local Police
voluntary weapons identification services
to protect your firearms
against theft or loss.

I second that.  Change the lock.  Its a lot cheaper than a wrongful death suit against you.  He has it coming to him, but if you lie in wait to shoot him, count on spending time with your lawyer at mucho dollars per hour.  That said, I would keep a little friend on my hip for the next several weeks when I was at home.

You might want to think about investing in a safe with a combination.  Is this a lightweight safe or a substantial large gunsafe.  I am not familiar with any large gunsafes that just unlock with a key, that is why I ask.

All of the firearms are registered as per Hawaii law.  I am planning to move my collection to another location today.  My only fear is coming home to find the culprit looking around my house to find them possibly using the gun he stole from me.

Locksmith.
Lawyer.
Lock & Load.
Repel the enemy assault by fire and close combat.

Semper Fi

Definately re-key the lock.  

You might also want to rent a security camera with a time delay or some sort of motion sensor.  Hide it but point it at the safe.  Then you can have proof of someone taking your guns.

First off a gun safe does not have a key. It has a combination and locking bolts. A relocker in case of tampering with that locking assy.

Sounds like you have a gun cabinet.

If you had a gun cabinet and guns were inside secured how did the perp. see them? I get so confused?

When people hide something like a key common sense says we all think of the same places. You could probably take 100 people at random and do a survey as to where you hid the key many of them would find it.

First fix the problem where they gained entry.
Change locks to house cause you probably had so many extra keys around that they picked one up for easier access later. Of course locking the deadbolts and windows when you leave is obvious.

If you have true valuables, expensive to replace then upgrade to a more intimidating vault over WallMart Homak type cabinet. Also you can get PepperSpray/InkDye booby trap bombs to rig to the interior of your safe which will discourage and dye the perps for later recognition. Leave out a couple of cheap Mosin Nagant or Enfield Ishapore rifles de-milled for bait to let the un-educated criminal to think they got something without having to crack the safe. An ultravilot marking pen writing your secret mark on some bait money will help to catch your prey when you tell the police you wrote your dog's name on the bills and they get caught with them.  Oh yea you do have a dog don't you. Even a little yappy Yorkie bitch will make enough noise to send looser thieves to your neighbor's house over your own.  Don't be suprized if it was taken by someone you know, or friends of a child who routinely are in your house.  Young kids often talk at play/school about things thier parents have lying around and where/how to access them.

Agree with franksquid, sounds like you were showing your gun collection to one of your budies, or maybe at a party, and either somebody told somebody else, or whatever.  

I assume you've removed all the guns from your safe.  Even if you change the locks, he knows what kind of safe - sounds like you have a wall mounted safe - and when he comes next time he'll be ready with the appropriate tools.  Wall mounted safes made of that flimsy sheet steel are notoriously easy to break into.  

I'd, as others above, would recommend that you get a full-size twist combination safe - like a Browning/Liberty or the equivalent.  Move it to a different location in your house.  Get a house alarm that calls the police.  Get one of those pepper spray trip alarms that'll make it particularly unpleasant for him when/if he returns.  

If he does return he ain't gonna come for awhile because he knows that you're at peak awareness now.  He's gonna wait awhile and then he'll come back.  

Do what I do and plan a "fake" vacation.  Tell all your family, friends, coworkers and the like that you're going to the mountains for the weekend for camping and fishing.  Tell 'em all you won't be back till late Tuesday.  Make a big deal of packing the car in the driveway with lots of junk.  Leave in broad daylight late in the day.  Go a couple miles away and let the wife and kids go to their in-laws.  Sit in a bar and have a few beers till dark and then return by cab to a couple of blocks away and walk in by darkness to the back door.  No light, calls or noise.  You'll be AMAZED at what happens to your house and property.  Be sure to have a camera and cell phone for both recording evidence and calling the fuzz.  Enjoy.

If your gunsafe is in a certain room of the house, ever consider hooking a burglar alarm up to just that room?  For example, if your safe is in a closet, hook a contact switch up (on a collapsing circuit, so he cant turn it off without flipping breakers, dont forget a key-based override that is up in the attic or somewhere so you could turn it off) to the closet door and a LOUD ass air-raid-style klaxon under your roof near the louvers.  That will sure scare the shit out of him, and someone will call the cops to turn that god-awful noise off.

Of course, you could take the easy way out, and borrow a dog from one of your buddies.

Kharn

sounds like an inside job to me too. i agree with FrankSquid, you're posting the intention to wait for the perp is a dangerous game. once you gain enough advice from this thread, delete it ASAP.

what bothers me is, why did they take only one rifle and leave the rest? i don't want to sound like an alarmist, but do you have any enemies? any depressed friends or family?? if only one rifle was taken, wouldn't it lead you to believe that someone needs a rifle to USE? and if they needed some cash from a re-sale, wouldn't they have taken as many as they could carry?? also, why didn't they take the TV, the VCR?

i wish you the best of luck, but above all, be carefull!!!

Yeah, why didnt he/she take your computer? Is it some old POS?

Kharn

I wonder how many people would kill the perp but then not report it to the police.  Who is going to miss a lowlife POS?

GunLvr

Let me get this straight, guy breaks into your house once already and stole a rifle and your worried he might come back again?  You're also worried about a 'wrongful' death if you shoot him in YOUR home?

I dont care what state you live in... follow these 3 rules.

First of all, no matter what you do, dont shoot the SOB outside, if you do, drag his dead butt inside your house!

Secondly, dont shoot the SOB in the back... looks like you shot him while he was trying to run away which then makes it harder to substantiate point #3.

Number 3, after you dial 911, say this: "He said he was gonna kill me, I was in fear for my life".

End of story,
M.

Numb-fuck answers like 'shoot him outside and drag him inside' will get you a first-class reservation at the county Butt-Hump Hotel.  

Salient points -
1) if he is inside your house when you get home, don't shoot if he's running away.

2) if he breaks into your house while you're there, you're a lot more justified in using deadly force

3) whoever said that this is an inside job is absolutely correct.  I'd be checking some of your alleged buddies out a little more closely.

4) get a MONITORED security system, ASAP.

QS

Quietshootr, I agree with you 100% You all need to be a little more carful with what you say. Would you walk up to a cop and say your going to wait in your house to ambush the next person that walks in? If you ever do have to use deadly force it doesn't look good when quotes like that come up. Get a dog or a security system or something but use some common sense.

Safes (not cabinets) by Security Products are keyed, not combination locked. It's posts like this that finally prompted me to get a safe (w/combo lock). The burglar only took one gun?

Thank you!!! littlemarine - a breath of common sense!

All I'm saying is this - don't say shit like that.  If someone breaks into your home, we all know that the best defense is a good offense.  BUT - your actions and subsequent statements can't even BEGIN to appear that that's what you were thinking.  To Joe Schmuckatelli on the street, your actions must appear consistent with the fact that you WERE IN FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE.  And believe me - the dumbest of Barney Fifes can tell if you do something idiotic like shoot someone outside and drag them inside.  And that assumes no one saw you do it.

I'm not saying don't defend yourself vigorously.  I'm just saying that it's a hollow victory indeed if you kill the perp and wind up in the big house because you weren't quite as clever as you thought.  Cops aren't gods, and they aren't necessarily smarter than you - but they see this shit all day every day.  So be smart and make sure your actions would look reasonable to 12 of your neighbors, not just to your shooting buddies or pals on AR15.com.

QS

Your house was not robbed. It is not possible to [i]rob[/i] a house. Your house was burglarized and you are the victim of a burglary.

Hey Hineline, show him the intimidating picture of you wearing the shoulder holster and looking sinister. He can print it and scar away all the bad guys.

I was wrong about one thing. Gunslinger sounds just like a little yapping Yorkie bitch and he does not scare or frighten me off one bit.

[img]http://www.mindspring.com/~uziforme/uzilogo.jpg[/img]

The person will most likely come back while you are at work.  Had the same thing happen to a friend.  He even had a German Shepherd in the house.

How did the person break in?  Was something smashed in or left unlocked?  Radio Shack sells cheap alarm systems that monitor a door or window.  If the door opens it sets off a siren.  It might work to scare him off or he will smash it.  It will definately let him know he was expected.

Get the X10 camera and hook it up to your VCR. You will have 8 hours of tape to record everything that happens in your apartment.  The X10 is small enough to go unnoticed.

It took a couple days for the crooks to break back into my friends house.  He also brought back up with him and they carried the entire gun cabinet off.

First of all, forget most of the shit you just read on this thread

You CANNOT use lethal force to protect property.  You can ONLY use it to fend against an assailent that demonstrated the desire to kill you or inflict sever harm AND the assailant must have the ablitity to do so.  A threat with a knife is not valid if the person is 100 feet away.

Get a better safe.  The cheapest is Sentry and sells at wall mart for $300.  No average theif is gonna get through it.

An alarm is good too!

Good luck