"This Is a Quiet Neighborhood and Nothing Like This Ever Happens Here"

[Member 34319]

You picked up on that too, did ya?

Still, a good practical exercise and obviously learned some lessons from it. That's never a bad thing.

I don't know, rereading it, I'm not sure if it was an exercise or? It sort of sounds like self caused paranoia. If anytime a sensor goes off you scramble for a firearm, and proceed to treat whatever it is as a deadly threat. Kind of scary if it's just some person lost on a country road. Not that being prepared doesn't hurt, but what the original post spelled out to me is paranoia and a terrified wife. Maybe a week in a hotel in downtown Portland is what the OP needs. After that, the shear silence of their home might cause them to go nuts!

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I don't know, rereading it, I'm not sure if it was an exercise or? It sort of sounds like self caused paranoia. If anytime a sensor goes off you scramble for a firearm, and proceed to treat whatever it is as a deadly threat. Kind of scary if it's just some person lost on a country road. Not that being prepared doesn't hurt, but what the original post spelled out to me is paranoia and a terrified wife. Maybe a week in a hotel in downtown Portland is what the OP needs. After that, the shear silence of their home might cause them to go nuts!

Agree. Cameras will help to id if it's a threat or not. I still call in armed carjackings and stabbings I witness (although I know police probably won't respond) but don't even bother to call in shootings anymore. There's no point and lots of times they are sort of running gun battles anyway and cars are long gone. Had one of those recently that woke us up at 6 am.

 

[salmon creek gary]

So…. your wife decided she needed to use the restroom during a possible event?

It was a sudden, strong urgency.

 

[salmon creek gary]

Are you sure this wasn't a deer or something?

Pretty dang sure, although we often see deer in the area. Our property adjoins a wooded creek buffer zone that extends through a wildlife protective area,. So far, however, those deer have never tripped the magnetic sensors along our lane (or showed up carrying headlights).

 

[titsonritz]

So a racoon tripped your alarm, sounds like a pretty radical neighborhood.

 

[salmon creek gary]

Do they only activate with cars? I don't know anything about them cuz we use cameras that alert your phone and let you see what's going on on your phone.

The Mighty Mule driveway alert system uses magnetic sensors that only react to a moving mass of metal. My wheel barrow has enough mass, as does my riding lawn mower.

 

[AshWilliams]

In all likelihood this was someone that simply needed to turn around, but I'm with you, I would have had my Mossberg 590-A1 in hands just to be on the prepared side.

 

[CLRTR999]

Makes sense. So much stuff delivered nowadays, meals, groceries etc. We get them all the time here but more urban than OP's area.

That was my thought upon reading this. Most likely just a DoorDash or Uber Eats driver that realized they were at the wrong house. OP, you may want to consider putting a sign with your house number at the entrance of your private drive. That should help greatly reduce visitors that are looking for one of your neighbors' houses.

 

[Mikej]

The Mighty Mule driveway alert system uses magnetic sensors that only react to a moving mass of metal. My wheel barrow has enough mass, as does my riding lawn mower.

I don't think it's an over reaction at all. It's just being sure. It's good practice. Considering that WA and OR have mostly feckless DA's not willing to really punish criminals, it's not outrageous to prepare for one of those home invasions. I haven't done research but it would make sense that someone doing that sort of thing wouldn't do it in neighborhood areas where houses are 15' from each other. Semirural could be more likely.

 

[Tony617]

When I am dressed in PJ's I flanel for fall and winter or cotton for spring and summer months. I wear a leather gun belt and have OWB holster that accomdates a weapon light. I always have front pockets in my PJ's so I keep a spare magazine in one pocket and a small flash light in the other pocket. My PJs do not have any belt loops but I tighen my gun belt up and I have no issues seating down or even drawing from a seated position. I have done this routine for years now.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

When I am dressed in PJ's I flanel for fall and winter or cotton for spring and summer months. I wear a leather gun belt and have OWB holster that accomdates a weapon light. I always have front pockets in my PJ's so I keep a spare magazine in one pocket and a small flash light in the other pocket. My PJs do not have any belt loops but I tighen my gun belt up and I have no issues seating down or even drawing from a seated position. I have done this routine for years now.

I wear shoulder holsters to bed so that I have a 556 pistol on one side and mp5 on the other side. Good thing I sleep on my back and not on the side.

(J/k)

 

[Tony617]

I wear shoulder holsters to bed so that I have a 556 pistol on one side and mp5 on the other side. Good thing I sleep on my back and not on the side.

(J/k)

I do not sleep with my gun belt on I put my firearm in a quick access gun safe

 

[bradsteen]

I don't think having a gun handy as an unknown person rolls down your driveway at midnight is unreasonable or paranoid. The location is remote, so unlikely to be a delivery driver, and response time for LE is likely beyond 30 min. The time of the encounter is beyond "normal" visiting hours, so most likely either someone lost or a prowler.

Probably a bit more intense than it needed to be - for example, wife sheltering in a safe place is a good move, but it's something I would hold off on till I had eyes on the subject(s) and could evaluate the threat properly. Beyond that, OP appears well prepared, has a drill for threat response that he and his wife practice, and has early warning sensors to give him time to make ready.

He also is openly self-critical about shortcomings in the implementation of his response plan, and will be making changes so he is better able to respond next time. Events like these happen infrequently, so people often can only make assumptions on how things will go down and hope for the best. OP got a valuable opportunity to practice, analyze, and improve.

 

[Alexx1401]

Agree. Cameras will help to id if it's a threat or not. I still call in armed carjackings and stabbings I witness (although I know police probably won't respond) but don't even bother to call in shootings anymore. There's no point and lots of times they are sort of running gun battles anyway and cars are long gone. Had one of those recently that woke us up at 6 am.

Sadly this is now the "norm" at way too many places. Short gun fire erupts, cars all scatter. Police will of course have to roll by to check. If no home is hit and no bodies are found all the Cops can do is call it and move on. A LOT of times some "victims" will roll into some ER. Police of course then have to respond to talk to them. The norm here is the "victim" does not know exactly where they were when hit, saw nothing, know nothing. Cops make their report and again move on. This is all too often what the people who live there keep voting for so they get to enjoy it. The rest of us are stuck with either make the most of it or pick up and move.

 

[salmon creek gary]

OP said he could see the lights of the vehicle leaving. Suspect the alarm would go off for animals too of that size. I have a motion detector system at the house on all 4 sides of the home. Will only pick up movent from something generating heat. So vehicle or animal not wind blowing tree's and such.

I graduated from a PIR driveway alert system long ago. Any actual vehicle alert was easily outnumbered 100 to 1 by kids, pets, deer, raccoons, possums, rabbits, and squirrels.
A magnetic sensor system is the way to go because it is only triggered my a moving mass of metal within the 12-foot sensor diameter. Located at vehicle "choke points" in the lane, my Mighty Mule systems have proven to be very reliable, normally free of false alerts, and the annual battery changes (2 AA alkaline cells) are super easy. The buy-in cost is low enough that I didn't even mind replacing my first kit after seven years of exposurer to the elements caused the remote transmitter to start randomly sending an occasional false alert.

I do have a few inexpensive Harbor Freight PIR alarms to cover critical areas next to the house. I've arranged these for narrow coverage to avoid wildlife alerts.

 

[Alexx1401]

I graduated from a PIR driveway alert system long ago. Any actual vehicle alert was easily outnumbered 100 to 1 by kids, pets, deer, raccoons, possums, rabbits, and squirrels.
A magnetic sensor system is the way to go because it is only triggered my a moving mass of metal within the 12-foot sensor diameter. Located at vehicle "choke points" in the lane, my Mighty Mule systems have proven to be very reliable, normally free of false alerts, and the annual battery changes (2 AA alkaline cells) are super easy. The buy-in cost is low enough that I didn't even mind replacing my first kit after seven years of exposurer to the elements caused the remote transmitter to start randomly sending an occasional false alert.

I do have a few inexpensive Harbor Freight PIR alarms to cover critical areas next to the house. I've arranged these for narrow coverage to avoid wildlife alerts.

Sounds like those would be great for those with a drive that only want to know when a vehicle is there. The system I bought was sold as a drive way monitor but that was not what I wanted it for. I live on a large place that is fenced. When we are closed and gates are locked, I wanted to know if anyone was moving around my home, especially after dark. The system lets me set a different sound for each side of the home so I know which side is tripped. Then if relaxing I can just look at phone and see if its a critter passing through, a critter looking at my chickens, or a two legged critter who climbed the fences. Nice when the fur alarms start telling me "something is outside Dad".

 

[salmon creek gary]

. . . . Mighta coulda just been someone at a wrong address and realized it once they approached the front door(??)

That is sure possible, but there's almost zero late-night traffic out on the pavement (a dead end road just two tenths of a mile long). This was the first "suspicious vehicle" to drive the full length of our gravel lane in over ten years.

 

[salmon creek gary]

Buy a gate.

Bruce

I do have that option, and keeping the gate closed only at night would avoid staying steadily occupied with letting in all the vans & box trucks delivering "stuff" that my wife has ordered.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

 

[salmon creek gary]

So a racoon tripped your alarm, sounds like a pretty radical neighborhood.

The driver of that vehicle would very likely be offended if described as any variation of raccoon.