Last night, I was laying in bed watching youtube videos on my phone and falling asleep when I hear someone struggling with their lock next door. Then silence, and then a different adjacent condo sounds like they’re having trouble. This didn’t sound right, I silently got out of bed and grabbed my M&P 9 (note: my condo has an extremely open floorplan, all rooms open into the main room). Then, my door. Fidgeting, and then nothing. Then, I see the outline of a man in the twilight at my cracked open window, I can see his silhouette through the blinds. I chamber a round.

He punched my screen out and tried to climb in. Had his head, one arm, and one leg through. Still, I didn’t fire. I had dialed 911, took almost 30 seconds to get someone with all of the auto attendant menus asking if I speak Spanish. All the while, I’m screaming get the fuck out of my house, someone call 911. Dispatch finally answers, I start shouting my address. Shouting get the fuck out of my house, home invasion in progress, I can’t get out and will defend myself (note: live in Portland, OR. No duty to retreat).

Here’s my fuckup: I set the pistol down and grabbed my Mossberg 500 12 gauge loaded with 00 buck. I rack the slide, in the moment I had hoped that the distinctive sound would show I’m not fucking around. He says “I don’t give a fuck.” Welp. I switch back the M&P, I practice with it more and am more confident with it. Plus, 17 shots vs. 5. But in stupidly switching weapons, I took my eyes off target. Left myself vulnerable. Big fuckup, could have been a bad outcome.

But he just stared at me, then left. That was it. about a minute later, 3 cruisers roll up. Total time of incident from initially picking up my pistol to copes showing up was under 4 minutes. When seconds count, police are minutes away. Even with pretty fast response time like that. I will also say that Portland PD have always been very professional when I’ve dealt with them, no complaints. Once statements were done and they left to canvas the area, I grabbed my Shield 9 and drove to the GFs house for the night.