My house got shot up last night, by an idiot with an airgun

[A.J. Holst]

Edit

Edited September 8, 2018 by Gotthegoods

[A.J. Holst]

Last night I was in my office which faces the rear of the house, I hear what sounds like a spring recoiling. Look around, nothing out of ordinary, perhaps structure contracting as it cools off, maybe the spring in a window track finally gave up the ghost.

Head off to bed.

This morning, I notice an imperfection in the window, closer inspection, a BB hit.

More inspection reveals my lower patio door has one shattered glass panel with obvious BB impact and multiple impacts in the vinyl siding.

Filed on line report with BCSO.

Then noticed some cans and a box on the rental porch down the hill. A quick, covert mission revealed can and box used for targets, with exit holes oriented towards my house.

My house became the back stop.

I'll be knocking on the door in about 20 minutes.

Know your target and what's beyond

Don't point your projectile thrower towards anything you don't wish to destroy of poke holes in

What if I had been downstairs when that door shattered?

Not being tactically trained, I have a pretty simple set of non John Wick moves.

I know I would have drawn and moved to acquire a good position, screamed for Mrs. GtGs to dial 911 (yes, she understands her job for this big IF)

Using some rehearsed phrases, in an outside voice, encourage the BG, to stop his encroachment.

I suspect my next moves are predicted upon the BG proceeding with the forced entry.

Be safe my friends!

Edited September 8, 2018 by Gotthegoods

[Raoul]

Take no prisoners.

 

[A.J. Holst]

Rentors down the hill are horrified and will get it fixed.

Grandson was shooting, Stella said he was shooting towards the woods (there is a target in a safe area). No idea he changed directions.

I think he changed directions because he couldn't see and used the porch light for illumination. From his perspective, shooting up hill, if I over shoot, no way I'll hit that house (if it even registered)

[Raoul]

Key phrase here is:

(if it even registered)

[AuEagle]

Sorry about the damage to your home, real happy no one was injured.

[bersaguy]

Sorry about the house and glad they are going to get it all repaired for you. I hope the airgun shooter has learned by their mistake.

[Ronald_55]

Gld you got a neighborly response. The rental house across from us has had sone real a-holes that would not have cared of their kids shot 12ga buckshot at my house. 

Hope it all gets fixed up soon. 

[Chucktshoes]

Good to hear that it was ultimately a case of a kid being dumb and not maliciousness. Hopefully the lessons were learned because the ones learned like this are usually the ones that really stick. 

[bersaguy]

I will admit back when I was a kid I use to shoot my BB gun at night but I used a flashlight/spotlight type light to light up my targets. We had a big Mulberry tree in our front  yard about 40 feet from the front porch and it was perfect tree for putting wooden checkers in the crevices of the limbs and old Chess pieces out on the limbs of. Did it in the wintertime after the leaves were down. I got to be a pretty good shot after doing it a while.

My father was a big help the first year as most kids knew you could put a few drops of oil down in the barrel and the BB's would fly faster and straighter so put some 3-1 oil down the barrel but it didn't work well. Took it back in the house and it got warmed up and the first several shots would be fine and then it would slow down and fall short again. Problem was it was about 25 degrees out and the oil was getting thick when it go cold.

Dad to the rescue. He came out to see how I was and I told him of the problem. He went in the house and came back out with a can of Liquid Wrench with one of those straw nozzle and he sprayed a little down the barrel and problem solved.  

 

[Moped]

Glad this turned out well, but sorry about the damage to your house!

 

[peejman]

Glad it wasn't malicious. 

What kind of air gun was it?  I wouldn't expect the typical Daisy model to have enough oomph to break windows after passing through a can or box. 

[Tuffus]

Several years ago I was talking to the neighbor across the street when we heard shots from the other neighbor's house about 100 yards away and ricochets pinging off of his brick house right where we were standing. The neighborhood kid was practicing with his new .22 rifle and had no awareness of what was behind his targets down the hill from his yard. Needless to say, he and his parents got an earful.

[A.J. Holst]

Shooter did not hold up under questioning.

After denying his BB gun could not fly that far and do damage, I offered the opportunity to do another test, right now.

He then volunteered he may heard BBs hitting something, did not relate to hitting my house.

Had a positive conversation and teaching moment about proper gun handling, offered to loan him a target stand and nicely, calmly said, "don't ever shoot my stuff again."

Neighbor again confirmed intent to fix.

[GlockSpock]

Agreed that it was much better being an "accident' rather than "on purpose". Glad you used it as a teaching moment for the kid. Dependent upon the age, if nobody ever taught him any sort of safety, how would he know?

[Erik88]

On 9/8/2018 at 4:59 PM, Gotthegoods said:

Shooter did not hold up under questioning.

After denying his BB gun could not fly that far and do damage, I offered the opportunity to do another test, right now.

He then volunteered he may heard BBs hitting something, did not relate to hitting my house.

Had a positive conversation and teaching moment about proper gun handling, offered to loan him a target stand and nicely, calmly said, "don't ever shoot my stuff again."

Neighbor again confirmed intent to fix.

My parents had a very similar situation happen to them in Knoxville late one night. They heard something hitting the house and looked out to see a laser up on the hill pointing down at them. Not having any idea what was going on they called KPD who took the call very seriously. Multiple officers showed up and found evidence of someone shooting airsoft pellets.  I don't think they caught the kids/persons responsible. They were luckier than you though and didn't have any damage. Hopefully the kid learns a valuable lesson.