The home invasion that almost was

“I was sitting in the kids’ bedroom, putting them to sleep…my husband in the living room working. The house was pretty quiet. We heard someone turn the knob on the back door and bump it hard-twice, as if trying to shove the door open. My husband brought me the shotgun, and went exploring outside with the pistol (he was a county reserve cop at the time). Never did see anyone. The weird thing? I usually don’t end up locking the doors until we go to bed (usually a couple hrs after the kids), but for some reason I had a nagging feeling to lock it early that night. If I hadn’t, God knows what would’ve happened. It was obvious that we were home and at least someone was awake (husband had kitchen and living room lights on), so whatever they wanted, was not just to take things.

He spoke with his fellow officers, but nothing was ever found. He did find a footprint by the garage the next morning….was way too big to have been his. We waited and waited for a follow-up break in, and it never happened. I am a stay at home mom, so I kept the pistol within reach for a while, when the kids were in school and I was home alone. Nothing like that has ever happened again…HOWEVER, a few months later my 11-year-old son did move out of his bedroom because he felt like he was being watched. Said he kept hearing footsteps outside his windows. Before we moved in, his room was a back porch that the previous owners had boxed in. The old concrete porch steps are still outside his room, and lead to a big window the previous owners put in (it doesn’t open). I’m sure it could’ve been neighborhood stray cats, but this was just a few months after the door incident.”