Boise, Idaho

I never expected such an incident this close at hand. I do not expect that this will make the newspaper--and yet such incidents are probably very common.

My neighbor Brett is about my age. Saturday in the wee hours of the morning, his two dachshunds made a heck of a racket, but he thought nothing of it. Sunday (today) about 5:30 AM, they made a racket again--and our dog Biscuit started making a racket as well. My wife assumed this was a call of nature--but Biscuit ran to the fence that we share with Brett, and went completely beserk. My wife assumed that Biscuit was barking because of Brett's dachshunds. Nope.

It turns out that someone went through an unlocked gate, and through the unlocked door from the back yard in to the garage. (Both of these security holes have now been fixed.) The dachshunds apparently made a serious effort to stop the intruder, but this guy was very intent on getting in.

He went to the room of Brett's daughter who was visiting from college (Brigham Young University), and actually entered her room--but by this point, Brett was up, and beginning to try and figure out why the dogs were making such an extraordinary racket. His wife then told Brett that there was an intruder. Brett grabbed a gun, and started searching the house. The intruder apparently hid in a bathroom until Brett got past him, and then ran down the stairs and out the front door. Brett didn't ever see him--his son was sleeping in the living room, saw someone pass through, and assumed it was Brett.

The police are of the opinion that this was probably a rapist, because of the level of persistence (making attempts on two nights in a row, and not being deterred by the dogs), and that he went directly to the daughter's room, and didn't steal anything.

Brett never got off a shot, and never even aimed a gun at the intruder--but the intruder must have realized that if the man of the house is looking for an intruder in Idaho, he's not going to blow kisses at you.

Brett is now busily enhancing security at his home. Being from Los Angeles, we already operate in full paranoid mode, so it doesn't change things much.