What if 911 isn't good enough?

Given I've spent some time in VoIP land, the topic of E-911 isn't unfamiliar to me. I've never had to "practice" the use of 911 from my own house before though. Ironically, it drew me to completely new conclusions than I'd ever expected:

The Friday before New Year's, I decided to knock off work a little early. At 430PM I got in my car and was resolved that I had no phone calls or work to do for at least a week. I turned up the music in my car and began singing along with Poncho Sanchez. As I approached the freeway exit near my home, I saw helicopters circling, which typically indicates a car accident. (As my grandmother taught me, I usually say a prayer for whomever is in trouble). Anyway, I exit the freeway, and notice I missed a call on my phone. It was my wife calling in a panic. I called back and couldn't reach her. Then I saw dozens of local sheriff and neighbor city police cars parked with flashing lights at the freeway exit. Traffic was diverted away from my street, so I had to jump back on the freeway and access my home from another route. In the meantime I called my daughter's cell phone and she told me that 'mom was on the phone with 911, because there are bad guys in our yard'.

Turns out 4 African American guys (about as rare a sighting as 4 anything - heck I'm one of only four Mexicans around) tried to rob a local Long's Drugs, then drove off, only to crash into a car, then began running on foot. My wife heard what had happened and went to latch the gates to a creek next to our house, and it was then she saw one of the guys peeking his head over into our yard. She immediately called 911 and ran into the house, then grabbed my son's BB gun rifle so as to appear she was packing heat (very smart on her part). 911 had her on hold for a few minutes, then they were asking her questions like "are you sure you saw someone?" It took the authorities, who were parked only blocks away almost 15 minutes to get to our house. While she waited for authorities, she felt helpless and the kids were of course scared.

15 minutes later, I finally made it to my street. It was packed with all twelve cop cars from the other street at the fwy exit. I parked my car and ran down my driveway, only to find a bunch of authorities and search dogs running around my yard. My wife was talking to one of them, and my two children (one of them being my 9 year old boy that was freaked out by the ADT commercial that aired during American Idol last year; I always assured him things like that don't happen here very often, and now it's happening in our yard!) were freaked out looking out the window waiving me to come inside. I grabbed my wife and walked inside to get caught up on the background. My wife and kids went to a friend's house while a neighbor and I watched the dogs search. Then, all of a sudden the cops packed it in and took off - not telling us anything. I was thinking "either they found the guys or someone else had a sighting, or...maybe the guy my wife saw is hiding around my property someplace!"

Not being sure what was going on, and not being 100% whether my own surrounding area was completely searched, I sent my family to a neighbor's house. I grabbed a retired weapons guy and his marine son who pack heat from next door. We were busting open doors and shining giant flashlights, something out of a scene from cops. For better or worse, we came up empty handed. At least I was comfortable no one was hiding out at my place anywhere. Rationally, I suspected that anyone on the run would be miles from here by now, and would be hard pressed to find their way back to my abode.

I called the city police and they said it was all over, that all 4 guys were apprehended. Then I called the local sheriff, who said 1 guy was still at large. Nobody would provide me any details. Were they known criminals? Armed and dangerous? No one either could or would give me that information.

My family was freaked out, and I was freaked out about what could have happened in those 15 minutes before the authorities showed up at my place. What if the guy my wife saw in our yard had broken into the house, out of desperation and attempted to hide or hold someone hostage? My quaint little lane was turned upside down for the night. It was probably 1 in a million chances, but the conclusion I drew, is that you can't rely on 911. You can't safeguard from everything unknown, but you can at least think about a few potential scenarios, and prepare yourself and your family. Should everyone exercise their right to bear arms? This is one of those things you can never really answer until it happens to you I suppose...

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