cirus wrote: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:46 am
I live out in the country down a gravel road. We might have someone we don't know knock on our door twice a year. I never answer the door but just holler " who is it? " If they don't go away I just rack the Winchester.
I disagree with this attitude completely. I too live in the country. My door has been been knocked on late at night on 3 occasions in 24 years. One deffarious as I discribed. Twice with real emergencies. One was a beautiful mid 20s young lady with a mind of a 7 year old. The girl had been taken out in farm country by a family “friend” and had been assaulted. She sat in the fetal position on my porch swing for the 60 minutes it took for the State Trooper to arrive. At least she was safe. I am very cautious and carefully, but I won’t turn anyone in need away.
The minute someone knocks on our door, all 3 of my dogs go into barking mode, 2 of which sound ferocious yet they would just lick you to death. lol Even the Domino's folks back up. We just replaced our doorbell button with a RING video camera. It's motion sensitive so I get a notice on my cell phone when someone approaches the front door. I can then activate the speaker and tell them to go away, even if I'm not home.
cirus wrote: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:46 am
I live out in the country down a gravel road. We might have someone we don't know knock on our door twice a year. I never answer the door but just holler " who is it? " If they don't go away I just rack the Winchester.
I disagree with this attitude completely. I too live in the country. My door has been been knocked on late at night on 3 occasions in 24 years. One naferrious case as I I described. Twice with real emergencies. One was a beautiful mid 20s young lady with a mind of a 7 year old. The girl had been taken out in farm country by a family “friend” and had been assaulted. She sat in the fetal position on my porch swing for the 60 minutes it took for the State Trooper to arrive. At least she was safe. I am very cautious and carefully, but I won’t turn anyone in need away.
That's why I say " who is it? " if it's a situation as you described the door will come open. If it's a salesman, a survey, or some other idiot the door stays closed.
Good article. One of the things that struck me about home architecture when I first moved to Texas, besides the fact that so many homes were brick instead of stucco/wood, was the fact that so many front doors have large windows either built into the door, or on either side of the door. That makes it a more complicated exercise to answer a door without being seen. At my old house in Grapevine, we solved this by installing a Ring doorbell/camera. Those work beautifully, by the way. I once held a conversation with a salesman at my front door in Grapevine, while I was westbound on I-40 halfway across New Mexico. But that unit was standalone, had its own app, and was not integrated with our home security system. At our North Richland Hills home where we live now, we have something very similar to the Ring unit, that was provided to us by our home security provider, and which integrates with our home security app.
These types of things are great. They not only enable you to answer the door without being anywhere near it, but they also allow you to see what the person on the other side is doing. The lenses are wide angle, and the image quality is HD. Mine sees very clearly all the way out to the street. It won’t see down the block because of the position of the front door relative to the position of my house on one side, and because of vegetation near the house on the other side, but it commands the entire front porch - which is large - and about 25 or 30 yards of the street out front. I highly recommend having a doorbell/camera that pairs with an app on your phone. They work great, and they give peace of mind.
BTW....sort of unrelated.....an Amazon driver dropped a package off at our house yesterday, and did something I’ve never seen before. We opened the door just after he had set the package down on the porch, and was in the middle of taking a picture of the package on our front porch - I assume for their “proof of delivery”. I wonder how long they’ve been doing that?
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
The Annoyed Man wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:31 am
BTW....sort of unrelated.....an Amazon driver dropped a package off at our house yesterday, and did something I’ve never seen before. We opened the door just after he had set the package down on the porch, and was in the middle of taking a picture of the package on our front porch - I assume for their “proof of delivery”. I wonder how long they’ve been doing that?
Yes, we get Amazon deliveries quite frequently, and our camera system shows the drivers taking photos of the delivery almost 100% of the time. Same thing with FedEx as well. Yes, for Proof of Delivery with all of the doorstep thefts going on.
We have the Netgear Arlo camera system, works good, but doesn't have audio, so no speaking with whomever is at the door. Looking to change to Ring or Nest or similar.
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The Annoyed Man wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:31 am
BTW....sort of unrelated.....an Amazon driver dropped a package off at our house yesterday, and did something I’ve never seen before. We opened the door just after he had set the package down on the porch, and was in the middle of taking a picture of the package on our front porch - I assume for their “proof of delivery”. I wonder how long they’ve been doing that?
Yes, we get Amazon deliveries quite frequently, and our camera system shows the drivers taking photos of the delivery almost 100% of the time. Same thing with FedEx as well. Yes, for Proof of Delivery with all of the doorstep thefts going on.
We have the Netgear Arlo camera system, works good, but doesn't have audio, so no speaking with whomever is at the door. Looking to change to Ring or Nest or similar.
We have Netgear Arlo cameras all around our house, and there SHOULD be an audio function. Mine have it. You can listen to and speak to anyone in view of the camera.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
We are in rural ranch country and our gate is over 600 feet from our front door. We had one unexpected knock on the door in the 12 years we've been here from a neighbor who jumped our fence to chat early one morning (he shared a fence line with us.) That was a really stupid stunt on his part, after that I got interested in guns, shooting, etc.
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gtolbert09 wrote: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:37 pm
The minute someone knocks on our door, all 3 of my dogs go into barking mode, 2 of which sound ferocious yet they would just lick you to death. lol Even the Domino's folks back up. We just replaced our doorbell button with a RING video camera. It's motion sensitive so I get a notice on my cell phone when someone approaches the front door. I can then activate the speaker and tell them to go away, even if I'm not home.
We have the same thing, and I find it seems to startle people; they do not expect to be detected.
"If a man breaks in your house, he ain't there for iced tea." Mom & Dad.
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Many are getting the ring doorbells or a variation. I spend stupid money on a monitored alarm because years ago, the ring did not exist. My daughter and sil have a ring of some type and while eating dinner I watched my daughter respond to a ring at their door as if they were home.
They also have video of anyone at their home. I am about to cancel the monitored alarm in favor of this. Having the big window front door, I ignore uninvited guests. I hate dealing with door to door types. I loved the "pop in" episode of Jerry Seinfield. HaHA... I am a "pop in" hater.
For now I have a big dog that barks like he is a rabid crazed beast. Thing is, it is his way of saying come on in and pet me, but he scares the unknowing visitor just the same.
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