Couple days ago now - Did my morning coffee at the Hardee's Liars Club, went to Sportsman's Warehouse to get my daily fix of 200 primers, home , turned on Newsmax and the brass tumbler . Cut the TV down so I could hear some video on laptop of Club member Josh Silby shooting in (and winning) the 2 mile shoot at the Whittington Center.(check out King of 2 Miles on FB)
Hear the dryer running in the basement - we don't even leave it plugged in. Hmm- maybe FIL needed to use it ?
Unlock basement door head down, there's a guy in underwear and socks in front of the dryer pulling clothes out.
My hand is now in my pocket gripping the pocket 9 as I ask him "What ...(can't say that here, I know) are you doing in my basement, dude?" He calmly replied "Washing my clothes" . I can tell he's not 100% at this point, so do not draw down on him. Me "What's your name" , Him "Ben" ,Me "Where you from, Ben?" , Him-"Virginia"(we indeed ARE in Virginia), Me- "Where in VA, Ben ?" Him,"Blacksburg" and he says he thought the house was abandoned, that's why he broke the daylight pane in the door/etc. Yeah, right ! Went back upstairs, dialed 911 , he dressed, packed his clothes, and booked back into the woods (I'm 900' or so off the pavement on 80 acres). Dispatcher lady wanted to know if I had a firearm, well, yeah. Asked me to unload and store before deputies arrived. Well, NO, told her the pocket 9 would be in my pocket where it belonged.
Furthur exam of the basement revealed he had indeed washed his clothes, the washer had to be rinsed out with Chlorox. He had removed bathroom mats from the dryer to make a bed of sorts along with an old blanket, drank a few bottles of the wife's water she shelves for power outages/etc. Had gone through all the "junque" boxes stuff strewed all over. Besides water, he stole a stethoscope ! I'd picked it up at the flea market for the nieces/nephews/grandson to play doctor with .
He did not fit description of anyone they were looking for, did not do any fingerprinting. Last I saw of him he was dressed in black(Johnny Cash fan?) with a black backpack heading into the woods.
Couple days later he's on camera stealing from a local grocery and a convenience store so the popo come show me a pic and ask if it's him, Yeah, if you guys ran his prints you'd know who he was, duh. He made the local news with the "if you see him call blah blah" .
Most nights one or the other of us go downstairs for something - that night we did not so we don't know what time he took up residence. Wife still freaked, I had to get up at 3AM next couple days to walk her to car(she goes to work at hospital EARLY !).
Most that know me are surprised he did not get shot , but hard to be afraid of a guy in shorts and socks.
It was apparent that he wasn't "right" and producing the 9 mighta prompted him to do something stupid, in which case, yeah, several 115 grain HP's headed his way . If I'd missed and hit the dryer, wife woulda done me in !
We useta have places to put folks like that before the world went crazy.
Do have a solid door on the basement now, something I shoulda done years ago .