This at three o'clock in the fucking morning

[RecoveringKinkoid]

This guy is banging on my front door.

Yeah. Three o'clock in the morning some dude starts whaling away on my front door. Okay. Adrenaline. I happened to be up, trying to get some work done. Should not have stayed up, but there you go. I was JUST about to turn it and I hear the BANGBANGBANG on my door downstairs.

So I'm going down the stairs yelling, "J, get up! Someone's banging on the door! Wake up!" and I get down there and look out the window near the door and it's some dude. So I crack the window and say "What do you need?"

And he proceeds to use quite a lot of very polite words to tell me absolutely nothing.

So I say, "Listen, who are you looking for? You have the wrong house." I mean, I dunno, maybe the guy's in trouble. I'm irked at this point, obviously, but you never know. Meanwhile, J, who is half asleep and pissed off, is saying, "I think you need to move on or I'm calling the cops."

And the guy says "Please do, I need someone in authority..." and the rest of what he said I don't really remember because it didn't make any sense to me. Really, he didn't sound drunk to me (although that's what J thought), but he sure didn't sound like someone making any sense.

So I said, again, "Who are you looking for?" And he said "I'm not looking for anyone." So I said "Are you drunk?" and he said he wasn't.

At that point, J's on the phone with the cops. And I said, "Well, look, man, it's three o'clock in the fucking morning and you're standing on my porch not making a whole lot of sense."

At that point, he goes, "Three oclock? Its' not three oclock!"

And my brain just threw in the towel. I'm not arguing the time with this guy at three oclock in the fucking morning. So I tell him to move on and he does.

Now, a couple things:

1. The cops never showed up to my house like they said they were gonna, not that I'm suprised. Although I did give the guy's description over the phone.

2. He went off up the street and may have been picked up by cops on their way down the street. I live on a dead end.

3. Believe it or not, in retrospect, I feel a little bad making the guy leave. What if he was sick or something? I mean, the situation was disturbing and kind of scary, but what if? I could have at least made him sit on my porch till (if) the cops came.

I don't think I handled that particularly well.

[Midnight12]

Handled well or not. (which you did!) doesn't matter, unless it was someone you knew and trusted enough to let it whenever, no one should be at your door at 3am. EVER. If he wasn't looking for someone what did he want good grief?

[Rapscallion]

If the cops had picked him up on your street, I think they would have let you know.

Rapscallion

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Yikes! I'm so glad I've not had that happen . . . be my luck my brother would grab his alarm remote off his nightstand and press the panic button before I could grab a phone to call 911.

And not one light will come on in any of the neighbors' homes either . . . but the cops would get there quick, fast and in a hurry.

[taxguykarl]

I agree with LexiaFira. You handled it quite well. What business does anyone have knocking on a stranger's door at that hour?

[Plaidman]

You did nothing wrong. You did awesome. I don't think I'd handle it that well. Then again, last time someone pounding on my door at that hour was a /friend/ of mom and dad, who had the crap beat out of him. He refused to have police did, because the reason he got beat up, was very illegal, and frankly deserved it, so we had to shoo him off. He decided to pound on our door and beg for cigs.

[RavenStarr]

Holy shit RK . I'm glad everyone is okay.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Did he look like THIS guy?



Sorry, but it reminded me of that song (you know, THIS one)...

Comedy aside, I'm glad that you're okay. I would have pretty much done the same, except I'd be holding the trusty ol' Louisville Slugger just out of his line of sight.

[Megg]

I was the weirdo banging on someone's door once. I had gotten myself into a terrible situation, in an unfamiliar town, with people I thought I knew. I was wrong. When these guys decided it was sexual favors if you want a ride home time, I decided it was walk away time. They disagreed, and followed me. I didn't know what to do, so I ran to an apartment and banged on their door. The lady inside was obviously freaked, but I just begged her to call the cops. "Don't open your door, that's no problem, but can you call 911?" The guys booked as soon as she answered the door, and the cops came pretty quick. I went home and learned a VERY valuable lesson. Oh, and yes, it was the middle of the night.

I hope that guy is okay.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I know, I hope so, too.

I am sure there was likely a good reason the guy was at my door, and it did occur to me that maybe he was in trouble.

Heck, I expected one of my neighbors, maybe, in the middle of an emergency. But all the guy really did was huff around distractedly, give me a half assed apology, and never state what he needed. Really, I was ready to help him out to an extent, but after time went by and he never really answered anything I asked him, never identified himself, and never stated his needs, I started getting annoyed. And when he wanted to stand there and say "it's not three am", I guess that was the wrong thing to say. I was done at that point.

Three am, my brain ain't exactly at it's best.

What I wish I'd done was tell him to sit on the porch while the cops came. At least that way, if he really did need help, he'd get some.

[Jester]

If someone is BANGBANGBANGing on my door at 3 am, even though I am probably up, they better damn well have a good reason, as I am not known for being Mr. Polite. My roommate, Mr. Anti-Social, even less so. And our third roommate deals with inmates all day at her job. Do the math.

In any case, if the dude DID have a good reason, he really should have stated it. If I am ever in trouble at 3 am and need to pound on someone's door, I will attempt to convey the problem to them, either through words or, if I am too freaked out to get the right words out, I am sure my emotional state will be obvious to them.

But to sit there calmly and argue the time? Dude wasn't in trouble. At least, not the kind you could be expected to help him with!

He's lucky he just got shooed away. I have friends that would have done the Nike Cross Trainer Mamba on his face. And those are some of my more polite friends!

[Megg]

Yeah, that sounds weird. He may have been on some serious drugs or something, and lit out when he realized "help" included the cops. He's lucky he didn't go somewhere and get shot by a homeowner who was freaked out being awakened at 3am by someone obviously not all there.

I hope you got a nap or something!

[Jester]

It's a good thing that guy didn't pound on my friend Golf Boy's door at 3 am. I still remember what happened when Golf Boy came out of a bar one time and saw across the parking lot that some dude was in his whale of a convertible. The dude had gotten his ass kicked in a previous fight, and had made the mistake of crawling into Golf Boy's open car, bleeding on the interior.

Let's just say that that dude's night got much, much worse at that point.

[Shangri-laschild]

Handled well or not. (which you did!) doesn't matter, unless it was someone you knew and trusted enough to let it whenever, no one should be at your door at 3am. EVER. If he wasn't looking for someone what did he want good grief?

My best friend's mom's house was broken into....by her neighbor who had just been hit in the head twice with a free weight by an intruder. The woman waited till she had a chance and ran next door and barged in (luckily the door was unlocked though the latch on the screen door was broken in the process. Scared the crap out of everyone in the house at the time but she was scared and hurt and trying to get away so all things considered, no one was upset with her, just freaked out. So sometimes there is a reason.

As far as this situation, I'd say it didn't sound like anything other than him being drunk and I would have done the same really.