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doorbells have rules
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Well, knocks after midnight I tend to bring a firearm just in case... I also live in the sticks so late night visitors are very uncommon. Usually it's a car accident that I didn't hear (which is weird, most of them fly through here and make sound like rolling thunder into the ditch or tree)
Same here. Out in the boonies, you keep one to hand, especially at night, but actually drawing without a good reason is just bad safety. Hand on it, ready to draw, sure.
You could always try “who is it?”
Well, that works to an extent. But there's two flaws.
First, by asking loud enough to be heard through a door, you're waking up anyone trying to sleep if the knocking/bell didn't.
Second, and more importantly, what they say doesn't matter. If it's a stranger (and it would be, anyone that knows me has my phone number and knows to get in touch first at that time of night), there's a zero trust situation. You hope things are legit, but you can never assume they're telling the truth.
Like, if I'm going to try to rob or fuck someone up, it isn't like I'm going to declare that when they ask who it is.
Why would I assume that the random stranger in the night is going to be truthful? I don't, I assume that any of the wide range of possibilities is in play, and prepare for them as best I can.
My default is polite but wary. Wary means prepared to handle a bad situation. It's just that simple.
I have cameras everywhere now, so it helps, but at night it's hard to make out faces, even with nightmode on. Scariest thing happened near here when I was a kid. We came home to blood smeared on our storm door with a hand print on the inside door, red splotches all over the porch. We found out someone had a car accident and tried to het help but no one was home. Neighbors said their leg was messed up in odd angles and were scratched all to hell but the emts thought they'd be fine. I felt bad as a kid for thinking "glad I wasn't home..." but they had no one to get help until the neighbors finally saw them.
That's why I can't just ignore the very rare instances of someone knocking at night. Wouldn't be able to live with myself if I could have helped and didn't.
Luckily, all I really care about via the camera is weaponry already in the open. If they're not armed and ready to go, I'll take the risk of being faster or not in case it's a person needing help. So far, I have never regretted answering the door, though there was one time the help wasn't exactly fun.
Drunk lady got dumped out of a car (probably for being a drunk idiot, because she was with me lol) on the edge of town, in the mountains, in January in clothes totally not fit for sub zero temps. I got her home, but jfc I wanted to dump her out again after five minutes. I hate drunks to begin with, but she was obliterated, trying to put her hand in my pants, and slobbering everywhere.
If that's the worst that ever comes my way, I'm happy lol