Many moons ago my family and I were robbed in our driveway after returning from church. I was not carrying and there was no such thing as a HCP then anyways. I was pistol whipped on the forehead and the children were put against a wall of the house ( both around 10 - 13 years old ) , they took my wallet , house keys and my wife's purse. When I came to from the momentary black-out ( I hit the blacktop when the pistol hit my forehead , big blood puddle ) we got into the house by raising our manual garage door. I went to get my Sig P226 from the bedroom and racked the slide ( kept it with no round in the chamber ) and went outside searching through the bushes and dark looking for the robbers. Once the cops and ambulance got there I was treated and they left. I barricaded all doors that night until I could change the locks the next morning. While sitting in my den going over things at around midnight I decided to double check my pistol , guess what , no round in the chamber. I did not pull the slide back far enough when I thought I charged it.
Funny thing is , I had $3 in my wallet , my wife $10 in her purse ; my 10 year old son , $60 in his wallet belt they did not get.
The moral of this story is , load it , keep it loaded , otherwise it's a brick and you could be too.