I think that's just in Texas.

 

Oh yeah, I'm gonna reinforce the door. I've got a friend in the steel biz who's making me 2 big a$$ brackets to strengthen the edge of the door around the deadbolt and ****, another to fit around the striker plates and wrap around the jamb to the garage framing. I've got a steel door, but the weakness was the steel didn't wrap around the edge over the wood to tie both sides together. Everything I did to secure it held, but once the wood core split the deadbolt didn't stand a chance.

The only reason(s) I still have everything is I'm on vacation, which ruined their plan. Whoever kicked it in was greedy, he didn't want to grab a couple of things and run, he wanted everything.

 

I like Florida.

 

The only flaw with this is it's almost mid-November in Canada. The grounds too frozen to dig in.

 

I would have left for work at my regular time.
Drove a few streets over parked and walked back home.
If they weren't waiting for me to drive away, I would have slipped back into the house and waited.

When they arrived and were actually loading my stuff, I pick up a phone and a gun.
The cops would be on their way but, the perps wouldn't be going anywhere.

 

I would have gotten up the next morning, drove to the coffee shop real quick to grab some Joe, and head back to the house and see if their truck is being loaded.

Then, I would have dialed 9-1-1, blocked their truck in so they couldn't make an escape, and have them ******* nailed.

I hate thieves. If a person is caught doing something like that, a hand needs to be removed.



[Edit]

basically what the goat man said.

 

The three S's would work great in this scenario.

Shoot
Shovel
Shut-up!

 

Except that they would probably beat feet in your scenario.
In mine, they meet their maker because the 'rushed' me.

Cops: "So sir, all five of them rushed you and you still had time to reload?"
Me: "I was backpeddling....but, so was they. That's why some of them is shot in the back."

 

That was great.

 

Isn't Texas great..

 

The only problem is I wouldn't have noticed the door before I left because I hardly use it. The way my garage sits, it's more practical to use the overhead door.

 

We are on different tracks.
I meant fake like you were going to work so they could proceed with their plan since you said you were on vacation.

I kind of read into it that you discovered the break-in sometime between 1am and when you would have normally left for work.
If you didn't discover it until after you would have gone to work then, you were lucky to be on vacation.

One thing I did learn from this thread is "Man Door", I'd never heard that term before.
Next time my wife tries to follow me thru the 'man door' I'm going to stop her and say,
"Hun, let me open the big one for you."

 

NOPE - you cannot use "deadly force" to protect property (home, garage, etc). You CAN use "deadly force" to protect people (yourself, your family, etc). Basically this means if you are home and someone breaks in you can do what you want and say you felt threatened and were protecting yourself. But you CANNOT set booby traps to catch someone since you are then protecting the property and not yourself. (I think there is a gray area if you are home at the time that the booby trap goes off).

We just talked about this last week in my legal class, which is taught by a practicing lawyer (as compared to a full time professor).

Just thought I'd share... the thought of someone stealing my stuff infuriates me, so I feel for you. I agree that you should sit and wait for them to come back... if you are in the garage when they come in it is self defense. It wouldn't be your fault that you "just got back from hunting and were working on your truck with your loaded rifle sitting nearby".

EDIT: just noticed the original author was from Canada... not sure how the law works up there...

 

Ok.

 

"Your Honor, when he broke in I had a loaded gun and he didn't, still I didn't want to shoot him so I ran away. I ran for five blocks but, he was chasing me the whole way. When I finally shot he spun around at the same time and that's why he got shot in the back. He was cursin me and threathen me Your Honor. and he was sayin bad things about your sister too."

"And Your Honor, these witnesses that claim I was chasing him just don't know the whole story. It mighta looked thata way but, truth is he had done laped me."