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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that keeping a weapon under one's bed is futile?

118 replies

Barkybarkynutnut · 25/09/2017 22:15

Just want to get others perspective on this. I have been surprised that quite a few of my friends have a weapon under their beds of some description of another! I never have even considered it. Am I foolish not to have something to hand to hit an intruder with? The thoughts of having to keep a baseball bat or something under the bed terrifies me!

OP posts:
Catinthecorner · 26/09/2017 00:17

All these people with dogs who’d protect them. Mine would greet the intruder and show them to the food cupboard.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 26/09/2017 00:23

Haha cat, we had a rescue dog (who died a few years ago), she was a Lhasa Apso and we always joked that she was a cat trapped inside a dog’s body. DH’s friend stayed over once as they went on a stag do, dog had never met him, but he could have been an intruder as he burst through the front door stumbling in alone at 1am (DH was being sick in a hedge outside Hmm). The dog gave him a dirty look a walked off in the opposite direction Grin

Original poster
Barkybarkynutnut · 26/09/2017 00:25

Wow I d hate to meet some of you if I was burgling! I think I might consider something like a bat or maybe locks on bedroom doors.....still makes me more jittery to keep something under/next to the bed than not. It's like I m expecting trouble !!!

OP posts:
Userlavender · 26/09/2017 00:29

@barkybarky sometimes dp and kids are away together and i stay for work - i have a lock on bedroom door it's a steel fire door so they wouldn't be able to kick it in. Idea being if anyone came in if i heard them before i saw them i could jump up and bolt bedroom door. Stupid maybe but makes me feel a bit more secure. No way would i approach a burglar on my own - unless my kids were in the house obviously then it's a case of burglar can't hurt us if he's dead - know what i mean? But on my own i'm too small - unless the burglar was a 110 pound 5 foot 4 man he would probably win physically - knife or not - depends on aim i suppose though

Allabitmuchisntit · 26/09/2017 00:29

Crowbar under the bed here.

craftsy · 26/09/2017 00:36

When my great grandfather was 90 he woke in the middle of the night to see a burglar going through his drawers. Without thinking he pulled an ornamental sword out of the wall plaque above his bed and beat the burglar's back with it. The burglar obviously got the fright of his life as he legged it.

DGGF said it was just a sudden burst of adrenaline and he did it without thinking. I was a teenager when it happened and just thought my DGGF was badass (which he was) but the sword was genuinely little more than a toy and he got very lucky that the burglar's first reaction was terror. By the time he ran off, DGGF's fight instinct had passed and he fell back on the bed and started banging the handle of the sword on the party wall to alert the nextdoor neighbours to come to his aid. (This was back in the days when people had one phone attached to the wall downstairs.)

I'm not sure if DGGF ever quite got over it because he started getting a number of illness in organs that had never previously troubled him and he died around 6 months later. I've since read that it's very common for elderly people to fight off an intruder but acquire a sudden illness and die in the following 6-12 months as a likely reaction to delayed shock.

HerRoyalNotness · 26/09/2017 00:40

In my head if I heard an intruder and had time, I have a dresser next to the door that I'd push across to stop them opening it, then push the bed up against it for extra, herd the DC into the bathroom to lie flat on the floor and call for help. They cosleep refuse to sleep upstairs alone and we're in the States, I won't be confronting anyone that comes in.

Either that, or they'd trip over the baby gate trying to walk into my room as I have done several times, that would give me time to throw the baby at them so she could scratch their eyes out with her sharp nails and bite their ear off with her bitey new teeth.

MamaDeeGee · 26/09/2017 00:40

I got a knife and bat down side of my bed im from the uk and i know exactly how to use both if needed :)

BeALert · 26/09/2017 00:41

I have pepper spray.

Adarajames · 26/09/2017 01:06

I have a walking stick by bedroom door; it's quite a sturdy wooden one as I broke the previous aluminium one by hitting the off the meds male who decided to kick my back door in at 0130 one morning; I got him cornered sitting on his hands until the police arrived to cart him off. The dog barked to let me know someone was out the back where shouldn't be, so I had time to grab the stick, but had to keep hold of her when he was on hands and knees or she'd've tried to play with him! Oh and I can get away with walking sticks around the house as I'm disabled and use them when out and about

Adarajames · 26/09/2017 01:07

@bealert I guess you're not uk based with pepper spray? Wish I could get hold of some, would be less draining and muscle aching than walking stick defenders!

steff13 · 26/09/2017 01:08

We have a dog, and I have a Glock in my nightstand, but it's in a safe and it's not loaded.

Seren85 · 26/09/2017 01:21

No weapon here due to a fear I would freeze and it would be used against me. However the only time I genuinely thought I heard someone downstairs in the middle of the night I was running down the stairs wielding DH's numchucks (he does martial arts) screaming like a banshee. Stupid really but I was very objectionable at the idea of someone thinking it acceptable to enter my house and touch my things. As it turns out, they rattled the door a bit but gave up quickly.

MakeItStopNeville · 26/09/2017 01:37

I have a panic button that goes directly to the police station that we inherited from the last owners. Other than that, nothing. That said, the burglary rate in my town is 0%, probably because there are 22 registered gun owners on my street alone.

Userlavender · 26/09/2017 01:47

@makeitstopneville are you in the US then? I know there are stats about this etc but i've noticed recently on similar burglar threads that a lot of posters saying zero burglar rates in their area are in america. I always thought it wouldn't be a deterrent because the burglar could also have a gun, but in general do you feel it stops them from doing so many break ins?

MakeItStopNeville · 26/09/2017 02:05

@Userlavender Yes. In US. I find it kind of incredible how safe my town is (originally from the UK). People leave their cars unlocked in supermarket car parks, and nobody steals anything. I don't know anyone at all who has been burgled. And I've never ever seen a gun here, except in a shop or on a police officer. Our local FB Mums group's biggest worry is who gave them bad service.

That said, I'm not an idiot. I'm entirely aware that there are towns not too far away that have masses amount of crime. This really is a country of haves and have nots. To be on the bottom here sucks. And I'd rather there were more burglaries and less toddlers accidentally shooting themselves dead, if I'm honest.

Userlavender · 26/09/2017 02:24

@makeitstop agreed. Still interesting though - I think in the UK there isn't as much distinction. Certainly some areas worse than areas but not as much as the US. I have spent a fair bit of time there and whilst i am anti-gun in theory - for the reasons you mention and more - I cannot deny I would feel safer if I did have a gun in the house in the UK. Controversial but true. Hence question whether it makes a genuine difference - although i don't think toddler deaths etc can ever be justified so i guess irrelevant.

BeALert · 26/09/2017 02:30

Very low burglary rates here too (small town America).

Someone on my street was burgled about 8 years ago and the police came and knocked on all our doors reminding us to start locking them.

Still no one bothers and no burglaries since.

I only have the pepper spray from when I used to hike alone on some dodgy trails beside work at lunchtime. I’m more likely to use it on a bear than on an attacker or burglar.

Adrianflank · 26/09/2017 02:57

I have an AR-15 with a flashlight next to my bed, unloaded, but have 2 mags in my bedside table

AlrightBabby · 26/09/2017 03:10

I have a bloody huge mastiff who sleeps outside my bedroom door like a gatekeeper

TheMaddHugger · 26/09/2017 04:41

@TheKidsAreTakingMySanity. That's terrible. ((((((Hugs)))))

TheMaddHugger · 26/09/2017 04:42

@Gillian1980 Mon 25-Sep-17 22:50:44
Dh is tall, well built, hairy and covered in tattoos! If anyone saw him naked and angry with his weapon they'd shit themselves!

So sorry, I giggled at the 'His weapon' part

TheMaddHugger · 26/09/2017 04:43

Niccelia Mon 25-Sep-17 23:25:12
I don't understand the "phone the police and hide" advice
I'm Disabled Fat and .... hellz, no where to hide my lilly white glow in the dark ass

Bubblebubblepop · 26/09/2017 04:58

Tbf I have just come back from a Greek island where there is no burglary. There are no guns there, Just a small community again.

I might get a weapon for peace of mind. I've always assumed burglars nowadays are doozy smack heads but that could go either way I guess- dozy or manic

Yetanothernamechange1234 · 26/09/2017 04:58

I have an extremely big thick wooden rolling pin under a pillow! It would certainly give someone a headache! Flat is tiny so hiding and ringing police wouldn't work..hot as hard as I could several times and then grab dd and run is my plan!