Do you think I am over reacting???

Joined
Nov 14, 2000
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I am very angry and kind of worried. I came home today from dropping a package off at the post office to find this huge moving truck parked in front of my house. While pulling into the driveway I noticed two shaky in appearance individuals standing in the street. They refused to make eye contact as I got out of my car and seemed to be looking at a map. Plate on the moving truck was from N. Carolina so I thought okay they are a bit lost and after dropping my stuff off inside I will se if I can point them in the right direction. Here is where I start to get angry... My fiancé is at home, the front door to the house is wide open, I walking in rather loudly with out saying a word, move quickly to the back of the house where she is typing away on the computer without a clue as to what is going on. Needless to say I told her I was a little upset that the door was unlocked and wide open with a moving truck and two shaky guy's outside. She tells me I am paranoid and it's the middle of the afternoon and she was safe in the house. After all is said and done I returned to the front of the house, the moving truck is gone and our phone line was ripped from the street pole to the side of the house!!! I called the phone company from my cell phone (30 mins on hold) and they are going to try and get to it today. I also called the local police to give them a description of the truck etc. but they said it really wasn't a matter for them to handle. My fiancé still does not understand why I am concerned and upset. Am I blowing this out of proportion or is this something to be concerned about?
 
No. You're not nuts and you're not over-reacting. Your fiance is incredibly naive. She needs to be educated a little about the real world and security. How you do that without coming off as an alarmist nut bag could be a problem. too many people just don't get it - until it strikes close to home.
 
No, your not over reacting. My wife does it all the time as well. Pisses me off to no end. The low life of our streets look for easy marks. A house with an open/unlocked door/window is just inviting them in.

I tell my wife this all the time. She is just forgetful. Good luck educating your fiancé.

S.
 
The moving van may have been a coincidence
but combined with the phone lines being cut.
You probably are lucky you came home when you did.
Ray Smith
 
15 years ago, our neighbor at the time, an Assistant District Attorney, went on vacation to the Bahamas for a week without telling any of his neighbors...

A moving truck came on the 31st of the month and loaded all of his belongings into it...seemed pretty legit. One of the neighbors even went over and asked where the moving neighbor was, and where he was moving to?

The answers received seemed legit, and the 'moving' continued.

The neighbor came home to an empty house. :eek:

Weird sh*t eh? Who knows, maybe he pissed of some criminal with pull...

"Be alert, the world needs more Lerts!"

Mel
 
No, you are not overreacting.

The moving truck and the phone line may indeed be a coincidence. However, your connecting them is not paranoid, either. No way to know. Could the moving truck have accidentily ripped the phone line?

Still, a wide open door, and Condition White do not go well together. I've seen this in the campus area quite a bit.

The only thing which may help is not to "overreact" when this happens, if this is what you do a lot (not saying you do). On the other hand, if this is the first time you have "overreacted," then maybe it was long overdue. How about an "Oprah solution?" Get her some counseling! :)

Some folks "just don't get it." A ripped phone line is pretty hard to ignore, unless it is a case of a tall truck ripping them down by accident (which seems highly unlikely).

I have no answer to your problem.

But the criminals do, and if and when it comes, it'll be a hard lesson.

Karl
 
No, you did not overreact. It would be nice if you could trust everyone and not have to worry about keeping safe. However, thats not the way the world is. I see people who say the same things all the time. Oh well, if they want to think I am a paranoid weirdo thats fine. I'd rather not be dead/robbed/assaulted/etc than not be "paranoid". Sad thing is the majority of these people will never change unless MAYBE they are a victim at some point. Then it will be too late. AND they STILL might not change in the future. I've seen it happen. Glad it worked out OK for you and yours this time.
 
No, you didn't overreact. But I work in a business where I learn from you guys and everyone else I work with and I grew up with guns and uncles in the military. I run a preparedness organization so I also get a lot more training that the average woman.

I'm not sure you can be mad at her though - maybe she just didn't know. The biggest problem I find in the survival & preparedness networks, etc. is that the guys don't know how to tell the women they love and care about all about survival & preparedness without seeming paranoid and overly concerned. I've talked to a LOT of the wives on teams that I've worked with and can usually explain it in a way a guy can't. Woman see things more on a low-key plane and it has to be explained to them in a way that explains how it threatens themselves and their family. We're usually of the mindset that we care about everyone else's safety like our husbands, our boyfriends and our kids and don't automatically think we're in any danger. We'd die for you goofy MF's and our kids without a thought. :D

What she did was very dangerous and potentially life-threatening, not just in this day and age but in the current conditions of our country. The phone line was "probably" an accident - I'm more the paranoid type so I would've figured it was on purpose and you probably came home just in time. Our course I'm usually armed with a small .25acp in my pocket just in my home and considering the company I work for there's usually half a dozen knives or hawks within arms reach. LOL

Talk calmly and rationally and it helps if you're not wearing BDU's when you do it. :D (I personally find them very distracting. ;) )
 
In fact, I would have promptly armed myself and secured the house. And have called 911 on your cell phone. I think you interrupted a crime in progress. Your significant other is darned lucky that she was not a statistic along with your belongings. I think your instincts were right on.
 
You're absolutely right in assuming something was going on. Remind her that the "middle of the afternoon" is prime time for house robberies because most people are out of the house working, or shopping, or picking up the kids, or ect. A mope that sees an open door in the middle of the afternoon is thinking "easy target" they must have been in rush and forgot to lock up. The phrase is CRIME OF OPPORTUNITY! Why make youself an easy target?
 
Thanks for all the advice!!! I think she is slowly starting to come around. I did a Google search on home invasions and robberies and printed out various news stories and just let her read through a bunch of them, I think it had a positive effect. The phone co. came early this morning and re-hooked up the line. The installer said that it had to be ripped down, the phone line was well above many of the others on the street that were not harmed. I am starting to think that while pretending to be lost they cut the line by standing on the roof of the truck. The phone co. is going to file a report with the police. I stopped by the precient today and met with some very concerned officers (however it did take a phone call from a family friend on the job first)after my second phone call to them went nowhere. The alarm co. will be here after 5 to step up efforts and I am trying to contact United trucking co. to see if they have a record of a rental or job in my area...Thanks again for all the help....
 
Guntaholic, sounds like you are doing a good job. Keep following up and if the rental truck company doesn't want to give you info, insist that the cops do so, before the trail gets too cold and someone loses it.

People who destroy phone lines are not to be taken lightly!

Karl
 
Brothers & Sisters of Security and Situational Awareness,
Guntaholic and Lady Fair, et alia,

Having seen the stats and with civlian/military security and LE experience you did a lot of good to get the message out. A back-up cell phone is a good thing. You might want to pick up a pocket camera for home and car(s) in the event that you see this again. Attend a city council meeting or two, locate the law enforcement coordinator and ask if the PD, SD or State crime force has security training and how best to protect yourself and others either at home or in your surroundings.

Some years ago, while re-locating, a stop at the local PD went from mundane to rather impressive when these questions were asked. Some departments like Dade County FL and Palm Beach have home security vans/displays to show the populace more of what we all need to consider.

Your lady might not realize that the society we wish we had and the one we have are at considerable odds to a serene society. Door-Scopes, remote viewing, motion detection, CCTV, solid core doors, active & passive alarm sytems, Safe Spaces, car alarms, purse alarms, personal tracking devices, night scopes, digital encryption, phony wallets, body armor and much more of our daily lives are prone to require personal protection and the associated heightened awareness.

This is not to say that we need to be paranoid! We need to consider a higher degree of safety for ourselves, our homes and our exposure while out-and-about.

Life shouldn't require us to be less considerate of our neighbors and friends; however, we should be well informed and aware of what goes on around us. Personal responsibility for personal protection. Period.

Regards,
Lance Gothic
Shibumi
 
Family is the only thing we have in this world we can not replace, No not Paranoid in the least.
 
Sounds like you've got a good hold on the situation. Keep plugging 'til your wife is up to speed on REALITY. My EX used to think if she didn't think about bad things they would leave her alone. I used to ask her how it felt with all that sand in her ears after keeping her head buried in it for so long!

Larry S. ( ex-LEO )
 
Having your home broken into is traumatic enough. I've been there... And I was home at the time. I thought it was my sister creeping around the house playing so I crept after her. As I passed her room, I noticed she was asleep and in her bed!!!!

As I approached the front door (going for the phone) I distinctly heard the sound of the screen door being gently closed. I locked that door and called the cops so fast.... This happened when I was in 7th grade and my folks were out at a friends house for dinner. We lived in a nice neighborhood in a decent part of town in Virginia Beach. Nothing ever came of the situation - that I know of.

What is truly frightening about YOUR situation is that these folks were fully prepared to deal with the contingency of finding a person at home while they were sacking the place. Be glad you came home when you did. And make a point of thoroughly explaining to your wife that she came very close to being in the kind of situation that nightmares are made of.
 
Thank goodness you got home when you did.

I know exactly how you feel in dealing with your wife. Sadly, it seems most women just don't want to face the reality of danger. My fiance is one of those women.

If my fiance is at home and I need to go somewhere...I make it a point, every time, to lock the doors myself from the outside with my key, after explicitly warning her not to open the door to ANYONE.

I really don't mind if we miss out on some deliveries or solicitors. If I'm not home, the door does not get opened, period.

Yet, you need to constantly enforce this, because women tend to forget these things easily.

Good to hear that it turned out okay. Good luck catching the piece of sh**s.
 
Well after contacting the moving company today they did have an truck kind of in my neck of the woods, they should have been about 15 miles east of us but that would of explained the map they had etc... The trucking co. offered to senf there insurance company to look at the damage, so I put my phone company in touch with them. My fiance is slowly but surely coming around. For the first time in about a year she asked to go to the pistol range... I am going to stay on top of her training as much as possible. She thought I was nuts but after reading Lance Gothic's post I thought od something I had overlooked, we were both fitted for Level 2A body armor today. I have gone through it time and time again in my head what would happed if I was home during a break-in, but never looked at body armor...Thanks for all the help!!!
 
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