Saturday night, I hear a noise in my backyard. It’s 1:30am, and no one should be in my back yard. The noise is my garbage can lid flying open (Buffalo blue bin). There are motion lights in my yard, but only one is on. It’s not windy. So I feel like something is up. I grab my Mossberg Persuader (8 shot tube, top folding stock, shell saddle). I don’t keep it chambered, so I flick the safety off before going outside. Right about now, my girlfriend thinks I’m a loon for taking my shotgun outside. I stroll to the back yard and look around. When I get to the garbage can, I peek into it and notice legs. There is someone in my garbage can. At this point, I am not sure what the deal is, and it might be my upstairs neighbor’s kid. I ask him what the hell he is doing in my garbage can, and tell him to get out of it. As he starts to climb out, I notice that he is white (my neighbors are black), and that he is definitely a tresspasser. That’s when I pumped the gun to chamber a shell. That’s when he nearly crapped his pants. I ask him what the fuck he is doing in my garbage. His response was something about someone trying to shoot him and he’s just trying to get away. I said that I was going to shoot him if he didn’t get the fuck out of my yard. So he runs across the street and I decided to do a sweep of my yard to make sure no one else is out there. As I approach my garage, the motion light goes on, and a flashlight from the neighbor’s yard shines on me. “Buffalo Police! Drop your gun!” I dropped it and threw my hands in the air. They asked me what I was doing with a gun. I said that I heard a noise and came out to investigate. They told me to take it back in the house and lock the doors. So I did.
Should I have let him go, or held him, and called the cops? I am torn here. At first, I figured he didn’t do anything to me, he didn’t look armed or dangerous (just stupid), and he was just tresspassing. If I held him, he could have held a grudge, and I could become the victim of random vandelism. Letting him go, he will act as a warning to others - “some crazy asshole with a gun lives there, don’t fuck with him.”
For the future - same situtation - let him go, or hold him for the cops?
(I think I am going to pick up some rubber ball loads, because I really wanted to blast him at least once).