Weird. I didn't order a pizza

[Chris_B]

So the buzzer for my apt. rings. My window is close to the door. Some guy is out there with a pizza and a bag covered in grease and steaming in the cold, he's juggling the pizza, this greasy bag, and his cell phone while he somehow hits my buzzer again

I think "well, I don't need anything. But I'll see what's up" I leave my apt, go down the stairs to the front door

I can see it's just this guy, his hands are full, nobody else there, from the window

"Somebody ordered a pizza (really, no kidding?) at this apartment" he says. Negative is the reply. Sorry. No pizza here. You're hitting the last button, and that's me. No pizza. I tell him look, I don't like to leave you out here in the cold but that's not my pizza, you need to call the phone number they gave you for the customer. I don't want to close the door on you on Christmas eve but...

and that's when the dude grabs the door and says, no, leave it open

I yank the door out of his hand and tell him "no sir I will not" and I close it in his face.

If I HAD grabbed a pistol before I went downstairs I feel I would have pulled it. I'm not Rambo or Lone Wold McQuade but the pizza guy doesn't pull doors open when told to stay outside. That move by the pizza guy was an uncool home invasion maneuver. He's not supposed to grab the door and give instructions! Several lessons learned here.

I should have called down from the window instead of going downstairs. It was dumb to open the door and dumber to have had the opportunity to have a friend along and not taking the opportunity. I will learn from all of this. In fact I just spent ten years in Boston, I do know better than this but here in the suburbs I must have let my guard down

So I wanted to take the time to say: stay safe all, and Merry Christmas

 

[Wildalaska]

If I HAD grabbed a pistol before I went downstairs I feel I would have pulled it.

And if he was a real pizza guy you would have gotten busted


WildsolessonlearnedAlaska ™©2002-2010

 

[Onward Allusion]

Chris_B
Weird. I didn't order a pizza
<SNIP>
If I HAD grabbed a pistol before I went downstairs I feel I would have pulled it.<SNIP>

Drawing at that point (when the delivery guy grabbed the door) would have been jumping the gun (pun intended). Now if he wouldn't let go and tried to come in, then it would be different. Glad everything worked out, however. Merry Christmas.

 

[jglsprings]

If I HAD grabbed a pistol before I went downstairs I feel I would have pulled it. I'm not Rambo or Lone Wold McQuade

Then stop thinking like one...

You would have been wrong. He didn't threaten your life.

 

[zxcvbob]

Shoulda axed him how much he wants for the pizza, and offered him half.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I never answer the door without a .357 magnum snub-nosed revolver in a pocket with my hand on it. Simplifies things.

 

[psyfly]

Well, maybe it would have been an overreaction for the OP to have 'pulled it'.

But...

Busted?

For what?

Best,

Will

 

[Justice06RR]

If you didn't order pizza you should've just answer through your intercom system and told the delivery guy he's got the wrong apartment.

No sense in walking down and opening the main building door if you don't know who the pizza delivery is for. If you were nice enough to do that, at least carry your weapon with you.

 

[Wildalaska]

Busted?

For what?

Well what crime do you think occurs when you pull a gun on a guy armed only with a Pizza.

I never answer the door without a .357 magnum snub-nosed revolver in a pocket with my hand on it. Simplifies things.

Never know when Al Qaeda sends their operatives disguised as girl scouts with nuclear S'mores

WildwaitnononoireallyamsantaclausnooooooooooooooblamblamblamAlaska ™©2002-2010

 

[egor20]

Wildalaska

Now if he ordered "Canadian Bacon", well, Al-Qaeda is not a problem

 

[B.N.Real]

You screwed up opening the door in the first place.

You openly violated the first protection you have-that front door to a person you did not give a good reason to be there.

Plus you were unarmed.

Had this person been casing your place,you'd have already been knocked in the head and the criminal would be heading towards your loved ones ready to do anything.

The pizza guy will get himself beaten,stabbed or shot sometime in the future if he keeps grabbing doorknobs like that.

Yea,it was only a pizza guy but you never know- a pizza box can hide some nasty things under it real easy.

 

[SwampYankee]

This is an interesting scenario. A guy shows up at your door with a pizza you did not order and gets a little aggressive, preventing you from closing the door in his face. Pizza guys are not necessarily brain surgeons so he could just be too dumb to realize that forcible entry is a crime. In that situation I would definitely have my sidearm on me but would I would brandish the baseball bat first. It's a good thing to have next to the door when you answer it. Just be glad we don't live in England, where baseball bats and envelope openers are illegal...

Although I'm sure there is no such thing as crime in Alaska, home invasions are becoming more common in New England. As are bank robberies, armored car hijackings, kidnappings and all kinds of economically based crime. Isn't the recession grand?

 

[Wildalaska]

Although I'm sure there is no such thing as crime in Alaska,

Well even though most folks here don't live in fear, actually, Alaska has a very high gun crime rate.

WildthatsbecausethereisnoguncontrolbutwehaveagreateconomyAlaska ™©2002-2010

 

[HelterSkelter]

psyfly, around here when you pull a gun on someone who isn't doing anything necessitating pulling a weapon on them it is called assault with a deadly weapon, even if you don't shoot.

 

[troy_mclure]

i think attempted forcible entry into your home is good enough reason to pull a gun.

you guys can be macho and say "he is no threat, its just a pizza guy", until he is in your house pulling who knows what out of the box and bag.

 

[Chris_B]

Hi guys

An uninvited person prevented me from closing the door when I reasonably explained to him that I did not want him inside the dwelling

His intent was absolutely to gain entry against my wishes. For what reason, I still do not know. Maybe he's an idiot, or maybe just very naive. In any case, 'no' means 'no', period. He has no right to prevent me from denying entry. Does this justify what I probably would have done had my pistol been on me?

Well, that wasn't open to debate. I'm not asking what you think. You may be surprised if I told you what the cop I talked to about this said to me

B.N. Real understands the situation well- although he misses the point in which I already acknowledged where I screwed up by going down, then going unarmed

Troy also echoes some things going through my head- this guy wants in, and is acting on that desire. My chance to protect myself is this one instant. Luckily for me, he WAS just a pizza guy who was an idiot.

jglsprings, this deserves a mention

Then stop thinking like one...

You would have been wrong. He didn't threaten your life.

No sir, I do not need to stop, as I never did think like one. I didn't take my gun. Those tough-guy characters would have, so the inference is silly. Also, as I point out myself, I made a mistake even going. I should have called down (intercom, by the way, is awful and unintelligible when used). I have already covered what I did wrong, and owned up to it. The chiding is both un-necessary, and in my opinion, self serving. You seem to have posted out of a need to show me or others how stupid I am. That's not constructive. I also didn't post "Gosh, man, I shoulda waved my gun around", or even "man, I wished I coulda pulled my gun, that would have been great". You're hitting the gas a little hard. You know he didn't threaten my life. You got to 'read the script' of my little play. I wasn't reading along. But what you personally feel about my own self-evaluation is an after-action report in which the QB makes every play, after all

But the situation is interesting. But while I did, 100% absolutely had fear for my immediate health and well being (you could interpret this as "my life") at the instant the man grabbed the door and prevented me from closing it, I cannot say for sure what I would have done if the other avenue existed. I could have stepped back and retrieved my pistol, had I the pistol on me. That allows him access. I could have done what I did regardless of having the pistol or not- overcome his hold on the door and slam it. I had roughly a nanosecond to react.

Although I had no pistol, I did react well to the surprise and the level of threat (great) I felt in terms of being able to act, which I am pleased about. I could have froze like a deer in the headlights. I wasted no time at all in removing the possibility he was coming in. I am sure someone will quote that last sentence, showing me that this proves thinking about drawing was wrong. Please make a thread about how badly I think, in that case, as looking for your approval is not something I am seeking. What's the legal impact of the possible outcome? And would I really have produced the pistol? On point one, that could be a lengthy debate; home invasions happen and the invader doesn't fill out a questionnaire before he comes in. On point two, I cannot with surety say. Since I slammed the door immediately, my mindset was on simply closing the door. My hand was on it, and as I say, stepping back to draw would have gained him entry. But can I say for sure I would have? I think I would have. Don't know for sure.

BUT. None of that is the point

The point is, as I previously pointed out, I made many mistakes in even going to the door in the first place. These lessons are not lost on me, and I have been man enough to point these failings on my part out before anyone else did. Directly to that point, this illustrates how a seemingly completely mundane everyday occurrence can turn out to be quite surprising. Since I learned this lesson at only the cost of some fright, I decided to take a moment and relate it, with a reminder to Stay Safe and have a Merry Christmas, which I hope you all are doing and are having.

 

[TheGoldenState]

I can only speak for myself, but I would not have drawn, had I brought a pistol down with me to talk to the guy. I would however, have probably gotten pretty POed and got real aggressive real fast. No need for a gun tho, imo. Just how fast is a nanosecond tho?

 

[Chris_B]

nanosecond: that one instant where your decisions matter a whole lot

Your signature line, is, incidentally, the entire point of this thread. I got comfortable in this new place away from the city, and I put myself in a situation that was one I didn't care for and could have turned bad fast. I could have easily eliminated all aspects of it by simply calling down from the window. I know I've mentioned that three times now, but I'm hoping somebody sees that point sometime

 

[stephen426]

I think you did just fine. It seems like a pretty good scam to me. While you can be focused on the pizza and thinking about who could have ordered it, the guy could pull a gun on you and rob you. This kind of thing could quickly turn into a home invasion scenario and it really isn't far fetched at all.

Home invasions have been on the rise in Miami, and much more so in the good areas than the bad. That would seem to make sense since there is usually more (and better) stuff to steal in the nice neighborhoods. Something as simple as leaving a garage door open while working inside the garage door lead to a home invasion in the gated community where I live.

You can call it paranoia if you like, but I rarely ever answer the door unarmed unless I am expecting someone. This goes for delivery drivers as well. It is very easy to steal the uniform of a UPS, FedEx, Dominos (whatever) driver. The "delivery" guy could easily use a package to conceal a weapon. This happened to one of my best friend's uncle. The situation was a little different since he is in the jewelry business. The robber had on the full FedEx uniform and had an ID tag.

I'm glad nothing bad happened and I appluad your quick thinking. I would consider talking to you neighbor about the situation since it is very possible it could have been of of them that answered the door. If someone did order a pizza, then no harm, no foul. If no one ordered the pizza, it could have still been the wrong address. Regardless, the delivery guy's action was unusual to say the least.

 

[WVleo]

Hi, I let Zelda, My best friend answer the door if I don't know someone. She is only 97 lbs. but devoted LOL !

.....WVleo