Someone’s at the Door
Recently we’ve had a couple of live instances where inappropriate persons have come to a residence and knocked on the door.
The first incidence was on July 22 where a young couple (male & female) entered a property through a locked gate and went up a long driveway to knock on the door of a residence purporting to be from University of Mount Royal conducting a Rural Crime Watch survey. The resident was home and did a couple of things correctly. First, they reported the incident to the RCMP. Secondly, they had a picture of the two and also forwarded this to the RCMP. This was in the Millarville area.
To be clear, HCRCWA does not go door-to-door. If this couple comes to your door, do not let them in and call the RCMP immediately. While the motive is undetermined, it is suspected they could have been casing the residence, or if no one had been home, they would have broken in
The second incidence is related to the homicide that took place in the Conrich/Strathmore area the first week of August. There were two suspects, and at the time of writing one of them is still at large and is considered armed and dangerous. A doorbell cam captured a picture of the suspect in the Bearspaw area.
So, what should you do if a stranger knocks on your door? The following tips are from the “Modern Survival Blog” and elsewhere.
First, don’t open the door until you determine who is there. You can do this by looking through a window other than the main door window, or checking the doorbell cam, or security camera if you have one aimed at the door.
If the door knock is late at night or early in the morning, don’t open the door. Door knocks at these times are likely from someone up to no good.
It is generally recommended that you shouldn’t pretend you’re not at home. The rationale is that it may be a thief looking to break in to an unoccupied house. If he breaks in, you have a different problem, now he’s in your house and so are you.
You should ask what they want by yelling through the door. If they say they need help or are injured, almost everyone has a cell phone these days meaning they can call for help themselves. You can say, through the closed and locked door, that you are calling 911 for them. When calling 911 let them know of your live situation.
Talk loudly to fake people in the house to give the impression you are not alone. This is especially true if you are female, elderly or otherwise vulnerable.
If you have a dog and it’s not already barking, induce it to bark, but it will probably have picked up on your fear already. I worked with an older lady who lived in Calgary, and she told me the story of a man coming to her door one evening (which she had opened) and she did not like the look of the person immediately. Her large dog didn’t like him either and was growling conspicuously. The man left. Break and enter inmates have stated they will not risk an encounter with a dog. They’d move on. No sense getting hurt when there are plenty of other easier targets.
Practice situational awareness by looking past the door knocker for any other persons, vehicles or whatever was not there previously. Keep mental notes and report them to the police once the person has gone or while on your 911 call. Definitely trust your instincts. If you’re not comfortable, your subconscious knows why and is warning you.
Anyone who is legitimate should have proper identification visibly displayed on their person, it should also be on their vehicle. If you don’t see it, ask for it. Also do not be fooled by someone wearing a safety vest, hard hat or other common work wear. They still should have ID. They can show it to you at the window.
There has been more than one case where person(s) wearing these items have wrung the doorbell and, if no one answers, they break in. Gender does not matter either. I’ve noticed women are participating in criminal activity more often. One of my relatives who has been in law enforcement for some time says, “Don’t even trust a granny.” She’s seen what they can do.
As always, it helps if you’ve done some pre-prep. Installing a doorbell cam, installing a security cam outside pointed at the door, but out of reach so as to not be easily disabled, and above all, being mentally prepared for what you are going to do if the situation arises.
Dave Schroeder
HCRCWA Board Member
