Just got scared out of my wits!

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a gun in the house. About an hour ago, I had a really frightening experience. It's late here (after 12 a.m. right now), and I was in the living room, at the back of the house, reading some stuff on the Internet. My husband was in bed, and JC was on his window perch in the kitchen, at the front of the house. The only light on was a reading lamp in the LR, plus my laptop screen. I heard JC jump down from his perch, hissing like crazy, went into the kitchen to see what was wrong, and saw a man's face peering through the window. His face was about 2 inches from the glass. I screamed for my husband while turning on the light, and the guy took off. I didn't get a good look at him - just saw a watch cap and ski jacket. The dog next door didn't bark until I screamed - he's old, senile and a bit deaf, and the movement-activated spotlight out front didn't go on - it's smashed. The police came within 5 -10 minutes and searched the yards, garages, etc., but didn't find anybody. They told me Christmas was the peak season for burglars. Right now I have all the shutters closed, and we checked all the doors and windows, but I doubt we're going to be able to sleep. This is JC's second "burglar alarm". A couple of years ago he woke me up in the middle of the night and insisted that I go out on the balcony. I saw flashlights in a building on our main street, called the cops, and they caught some burglars. No such luck this time.

That must be really scary! I hope you catch the guy. A gun might be a good idea incase you need to defend yourself. *cough* Ruger P97 *cough*
Good luck

Peace,
Brandon

OMG how scary . I would freak out . Glad nothing happend to you and that butt run off . That is why I have dogs . We used to have a real bad neigbourhood in the back behind the dich (sp) . Low income housing , there was drug use and dealing with drugs and who knows what els . I know in fact having a great barking dog is helping a lot . They always kept their distance at my house . It is better now there and the police has sorted mostly all out . But I am glad I have Klondike , he lets me know if there is somebody not from our family outsite . Maybe you can get a dog for your self ?

Give JC lots of loving. He was a very good boy! That's the good thing about animals, they can help you catch things like that (they can also scare the bejeezus out of you when nothing's there though).

Dogs are excellent burglar alarms and I'm a firm believer in household protection. There is a firearm in each nightstand drawer.

What are the gun laws, where you live? If you're not familiar with firearms, a shotgun is a good choice. Makes an awful mess, on your walls and floors but, it DOES stop the bad guys.

In Germany most people are not allowed to have fire arms , it is not like it is here in the usa .

omg that is so scary!! Thank god your cat hissed! I dont think mine would if they saw a person.

JC is quite a cat! Give him a scritch for me.

If you're allowed to own one, I'll second the shotgun as a good choice for home protection. It's nice because the sound it makes when you :censor::censor::censor::censor: it should be enough to make an intruder think twice.

I don't think the German police would smile on such weapons.

The cat is fine, though.

wow!! that is scary, it's a good thing JC is such a good watchcat!!!

That is way to scary. I too had a simular happing about 25yrs in N.C. my sister and i was watching tv ,when I heard a noise in the kitchen.Went to have a look ,here a guy was trying to break off the screen to get in. I could'nt move. I just froze. need less to say I moved my butt to get my boyfriend up to help. We called the police, they had found him down the road tring to break in another home. He had stolen my robe and unerwear off the clothes line. Turn out he had escaped from a home for the mentally disturb, still gives me willies thinking about it.

WAYYYYY to scary!!!

That is a horrible experience - guns are a bit extreme (IMHO), but a solid baseball bat would do the trick nicely (or a dog with big teeth and and even bigger bite)!!!

We had a policeman shot over the Christmas holidays in Yorkshire, so the whole gun thing is a bit of a debate here at the moment - don't get me wrong, I'm all for defending your home, but there's lots of other ways to do so (I have intruder alarms and CCTV and no trouble, and I live in quite a rough neighbourhood).

It's extremely difficult to get guns legally here in Germany, and I'm a bit sceptical about getting a "Saturday night special", because you don't know the gun's history. A friend who is an avid hunter says he'll sell us a rifle - I used to do competition shooting, so that's an idea. I'd love to get another dog, but my husband no longer has a job with a long lunch break when he can come home and let the dog out, and I work too far away. It was lucky the TV wasn't on last night - I'm hard of hearing, and might not have heard Jamie (though he's extremely loud for a cat). The motion-detector is definitely kaputt. Our neighbor's has also been smashed. This would have to happen this week - my husband has night shift all week, so I'm alone here all night. The cops said that the guy probably wouldn't come back here (meaning somebody else's house will be broken into?), but I nevertheless have a crowbar and my cell phone right beside the bed now, and I'm going to close all the shutters again, even though that means JC can't look out at night. This neighborhood isn't bad at all - we live in a small town -, though that was our second attempted break-in. About 15 years ago my husband got home from work to find a very upset boxer, the back door prised open, and blood and a piece of jeans on the floor in front of the door. We figure the dog didn't bark (he wasn't much of a watchdog), but attacked when the guy actually came into the house.

Years ago, when I lived alone in an apartment with only Midnight for company, I had a peeping tom at my window. I don't know if he intended more than peeping. The Celt in me took over and I grabbed my Renaissance Faire sword in one hand and my pepper spray in the other, and ran out the door after him! I sprayed him in the face and swung (and missed) with the sword, he beat feet out of there faster than you can imagine! I also got a good look at him and called the police to report it. I left the bit about the sword out of my account to them They didn't catch him, but he never came back.

I'm not advocating this sort of behaviour. Once it was all over, I was a shaking mess of adrenaline. But I was pretty proud of myself for not falling apart until it was OVER!

Way to go! Maybe you scared the h--l out of him, and he stopped. I guess that's wishful thinking. We've been discussing all day whether this guy was a would-be burglar, Peeping Tom, or a catnapper. I doubt that he was a voyeur, because we live in a 3-storey twin house, where bedrooms would obviously not be on the ground floor, and no lights were visible out front. The third possibility might sound a bit far-fetched (the police thought so), but we took a long walk around town last Friday afternoon, and saw so many posters about missing cats that I called the humane society on Saturday. They're also disturbed about the unusual numbers, and have talked to the mayor and the police (so why hasn't there been anything in the local paper or town bulletin? I'm a "news junkie", and was totally unaware that cats were disappearing). After JC "foiled" the burglars on Main Street, a friend gave us a "Beware of Cat" sign as a joke. It has an illustration of a cat, plus, "I'm on duty here - trespass at your own risk!" in German. I put the sign up in our kitchen window, where this guy was looking in, because I figured it would warn the fire company, police, deliverymen, etc., that they'd have to look out for a cat. JC only goes outside on a leash, but somebody looking for cats might see the sign and be on the lookout for a cat to snatch. I guess I'm being paranoid.

OMG, Sue! ROTFL!

One thing I've heard to do is to put a big pair of men's boots or shoes where they'll be visible, say near the porch, so an observer can't tell that you're home alone. If you think someone's out there, pretend to call out to another person - "Bruno/Hoss/Fred/Whoever, will you get the rifle? I'm calling the police". Before I lived in a place where I could have a dog, I kept a little device on the doorknob that made the sound of a dog barking if someone rattled the doorknob (you could also switch it to make an alarm sound).

Why on earth would people steal cats? That's scary.

How scary!!! We used to keep a very large water bowl and dog bones in sight of windows to foil would-be burglers. We almost had a break in at our house once. Our dog Jethro was inside recovering from surgery and we left little Nita in there with him. Nita was smallish, but part German Shepard and she had a big dog bark. The burgler ripped the screen to get in, but was scared away by the dogs. He then tried to get in a neighbors house (she pulled a gun on him), then managed to rob the house down the street.

Originally posted by tuxedokitties
Why on earth would people steal cats? That's scary.

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When a number of cats of all colors are disappearing, you'd probably assume that they're being sold to unethical laboratories. We've had problems with black cats vanishing into thin air in June, October and December, and the general consensus is that they're probably being "sacrificed" by (wannabe) Satanists.

Sue wow , I sure would not try to go in your house lol . You were very brave .

I think the boots is a great idea and also a fake barking dog . Jcat , cant you have a outsite dog maybe ? Or leave the dog outsite over the day and when you home he/she can come in .
In germany they steal all the time cats for laboratories and go from town to town try to catch the outsite cats . Very sad how people try to make some money . Jcat , if you are in a very small town you may be able to get a licens for a gun . I would ask the police , they may can give you the answers to that . If you tell them for security reasons .

Scary! Glad you're ok. I saw this device once which is a recording of a dog barking and it gets fainter as if the dog were running around the house. Very cool, and very realistic sounding, like the dog would take your arm off.

My s/o put a large hammer by our bed just in case. I usually fall asleep in the living room when he works late because there's only one way out of the bedroom.