What To Do When An Intruder Breaks In
How Having A Plan Can Save Your Life
It’s 2 a.m. You are awakened
by a noise downstairs. More
noise. Someone is in the
house! Your heart pounds…your
mind races. What should you
do? Grab a baseball bat and
creep into the hall to investigate?
Call the police and wait?
Try to escape?
It’s a terrifying situation
that happens to thousands of people.
Each year, about 16% of American households experience a property
crime. Occasionally, a criminal
breaks in while someone is at home – so it pays to know what you should
do.
Prevent
A Tragedy
Make a plan – now.
There is no single best strategy.
Some people can climb out a window and run for help…others live
or sleep on upper floors and are unable to flee for physical reasons.
If you can safely escape and get help – do it.
Once
An Intruder Is Inside
Be very quiet and listen.
How many intruders are there?
Are they ransacking the house?
Are they making their way toward you?
Don’t argue with your
spouse about what to do. This
alerts the intruder to where you are.
Don’t leave your bedroom
with a bat or a flashlight.
A surprised intruder is likely to react violently.
You have better options available to you than attempting to confront
the intruder. If you have
family to protect you cannot protect them if the intruder gets past you.
Get to a safe place.
A safe room is one of the best options.
Unlike what you have seen in the movies, it doesn’t have to be
large and filled with gadgets. An
interior closet with a sturdy door that opens out is just fine.
Put a deadbolt lock on the inside of the door and, most important,
recharge your cell phone in there every night.
Then, if you do hear someone in your home, you can go in the closet,
lock it and call the police. Even
if the intruder takes a phone off the hook to prevent you from calling
for help, you will be able to call the police.
You should be safe until the police arrive.
If you don’t have a safe
room, gather your family in a room, lock the door and barricade it with
furniture and other heavy objects.
Choose the most secure room with the best door and lock, stay there.
Make sure you have a
charged cell phone. Program
your automatic-dial phones to call 911.
It’s difficult to push even three buttons when you’re panicked
and your hands are shaking. Tell
the police dispatcher your address and situation in a few sentences.
Be specific.
Example:
“Someone has just broken into my house.
It sounds like one person.
I don’t know if he has a weapon.
He’s downstairs in the living room.
I’m upstairs in the master bedroom with my wife.”
Leave the phone line open
so the dispatcher can listen to what is happening.
If the intruder reaches
the room and turns the doorknob, be prepared to act.
Do not call out, “I’ve called the police.”
By doing so, you will give away your location.
Your bedroom door should have a lock.
Encountering
The Intruder
Remain calm and cooperative
if the intruder confronts you. How
you behave in the first 30 seconds can set the tone for all that follows.
When violence does occur, it almost always does within these first
few moments.
Speak in as normal a voice
as you can. Make no sudden
moves. Tell him that you
will cooperate. Hold your
hands up to shoulder level. It
appears compliant, yet it affords you the ability to have your hands ready
for defense.
Avoid direct eye contact.
The intruder may interpret this as aggressive behavior and worry
that you’ll be able to identify him later.
The outcome of a break-in
depends on the intruders. Most
burglars will flee unless they are surprised or confronted.
Home invasion robberies
– a small but growing trend – can last for hours and are always violent.
They are carried out by thugs who try to intimidate home owners
into divulging dafe combinations and bank ATM personal identification
numbers, and handling over credit cards that can’t be reported stolen
while the owners are being held hostage.
Create a distress code
with your burglar-alarm company.
If you are being held and your alarm has been triggered, you can
signal trouble when its representative calls to authenticate the alarm.
Your signal might be, “No, I can’t meet you tomorrow.”
Or just don’t pick up the call, so the company will send the police.
The
Weapons Options
It’s your right and personal
choice to own a firearm. People
generally aren’t willing to shoot when they need to.
You must be trained properly mentally as well as physically.
Guns are fired in less than 2% of home-intruder situations but
a criminal seeing the weapon and fleeing are in dramatically higher percentages.
Also, you need to keep the gun loaded and nearby for it to be effective.
With children living in or visiting your home you need to have an
adequate safe to allow you access and still keep the weapon from children.
If you have pepper spray
(oleoresin capsicum, or OC), only use it if you need help to escape.
Facial contact and inhalation of the spray will induce up to 45
minutes of coughing, choking, nausea and temporary blindness.
Even residual fumes can make your hiding place unbearable and can
be hazardous to people with respiratory and heart conditions.
Your local police department
can tell you if you legally can buy pepper spray in your state and where
to learn how to use it. As
with any weapon you must have a plan and be prepared to use it.
If
You Fight
Never take aggressive action
unless you believe that you are in a life-threatening situation.
Escape almost always is the better option.
If you decide to fight
back, look for an opportunity when the intruder lets down his guard.
Use a hard object to strike his eyes or throat as fast and hard
as you can. Don’t worry about
inflicting injury. Run as
soon as he’s stunned, and yell to get someone’s attention.
The intruder would rather escape than become the center of attention.
Preventing
Trouble
Many break-ins can be avoided.
Prevention begins with strong doors.
Most burglaries and break-ins occur through the front door (34%)
or the back door (22%).
Install steel-covered solid
wood doors that are at least 1.75 inches thick.
Make sure the doorjamb is steel as well.
Any glass panels in or near your doors should be made of unbreakable
glass.
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