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Letter from the Grey Zone

Oh man Collin, today’s podcast is really hitting home for me. I’m one of those “grey zone” kids too. Going to a black school in the 90’s ( 1992-93 to be precise) was almost the death of me literally (me and a small group of white guys that banded together for safety were shot at) and definitely ruined my life in terms of academics and graduating high school.

I grew up in Northeast Kansas City and went to Northeast High School , which of course is a  predominately black school in a predominately black neighborhood.
 
It was rare to have a day go by where I wasn’t at the very least called a honky, cracker or white boy but at least those days didn’t result in physical violence. Most days unfortunately had me having to get physical with the fellas. 
 
I even saw a kid get sliced down his thigh with a straight razor from one of the fellas, the reason? He was white and it was Black History Month so “The Cracker had to pay for slavery”. It was one of the scariest things I’d seen at that school. The kid never came back after that.

I was always a big guy even as a freshman I was 6 foot 2 and 300 lbs. I was what you would call country strong so it would make the black kids angry when they couldn’t always beat me one on one so then usually I would get jumped where some days I’d be fending off around 5 black assailants at once. Needless to say those days I would get my ass whipped.

Eventually I got a group of around 5-6 white guys who were bigger and sick of always being singled out to always be together and we were like a small gang I suppose. We always looked out for each other and tried our best to help the hapless other white kids who just tried to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the situation.

Eventually the fellas got sick of not being able to fight us fairly and one day while we were smoking outside they did a drive by on us, shooting at us without successfully hurting us physically but in a way it was like they killed our spirit that day.

I dropped out and there was really no repercussions for anything that happened that day because I couldn’t pick out who did it (I literally felt like every fella in the car looked alike from what I could recollect and it happened in the blink of an eye)
 
After that I just was always filled with anxiety and overly cautious to the point of overkill. To this day I still always watch my surroundings out of the corner of my eye.

I know for one my life has been harder due to the extreme amount of black hostility and violence I had to endure. I’ve never really had a good job, I drink too much and I have a lot of emotional issues. So I guess I really did die that day I was shot at, it has just been a very slow progress and instead of my life being taken away it was my spirit.

Thanks for letting me share with you, Colin you are doing important work so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Letter from a White Kid in a Black Summer Camp

Good morning Colin,

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to one of your podcasts where you played the 911 calls from the Louisville, Kentucky mobs that targeted white people.  He urged me to share my story with you because of your episode discussing the myth of white children picking on black kids due to their race.

I’m a 37 year old white man.  In the summer of 1990, between third and fourth grade, my mother worked in downtown Louisville as a secretary at the Army Corps. of Engineers building.  Out of convenience, she put me in the downtown YMCA summer care program. I was the only white kid there for almost the entire summer (there was a two week period where there was a white brother and sister also attended). 

From day one, I was targeted constantly.  Beaten up, choked, locked in lockers, stolen from on an almost daily basis just for the fact that I was white.  Even the high school aged kids would do things like throw basketballs at my head.  One of the counselors in charge (a 25-30 year old black man) called me a “little white faggot”. 

Any black kids that tried to befriend me were shunned for it, so friends were few and far between. This place was a daily living hell.  This was the most racism that I have ever experienced or witnessed in my life and it was not in the direction that is perpetuated by our media and schools. 

Letter from Jackson Mississippi

Hi Colin,


Sometimes I can be a little dense.

It just occurred to me what “Please sir, I want some more”, represents.
The headmaster represents the “black kids causing the violence” and the kid represents “white society”.

Society is saying after a violent incident, to the black community, “Please sir, I want some more.”

So, after all the violence and mayhem caused by out of control black mobs, whites want more. Even the “out of control” blacks are astonished. “What!”
Back in the early 1980s, one of my relatives, a middle age woman, was a bank manager in Mississippi, out of Jackson.

A black guy in a minimum security prison walked away from a work detail. He got himself a gun and robbed the bank where my cousin worked. Took her hostage and drug her out to the parking lot.

He shot her and left her for dead. She spent the last about 10 years of her life in a wheelchair, a paraplegic.

Her daughter was left to care for her.

I remember seeing it on the national news at the time. They caught the guy, but I don’t know what happened to him.

Letter from Two Minnesota Night Clubs

Colin,

Yep. Growing up around Minneapolis, that bar security guy is exactly right. When living in Coon Rapids, I warned bar owners, if they started appealing to blacks, they would see violence and would be out of business within the years. Both bars were wildly popular.


The first was Time Out…  https://www.twincities.com/2006/12/23/bouncer-dies-after-blaine-bar-brawl/

They went out of business shortly after.

The other was Coon Rapids Sports Bar and Grill. My fave bar of all time. They started playing black music and soon enough blacks started swamping them. Harassed all the women out and all the decent employees quit because they were sick of the non tipping or just flat out not paying.
Then the fights. I lost a tooth walking to my car after a bunch of blacks started attacking everyone. What was the answer to being people back? Free taco night. Yup, you’re shaking your head. More free stuff. They were out of business within months after that…

I could go on and on. I finally moved 3 hours north of that City. Lol. Within days of me moving, yes days (I moved the month this article was written), a huge black mob fight broke put at the new and very popular movie theater down the street from my old home of 20 years.

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/2-injured-in-coon-rapids-fight/89-431692876

On an earlier occasion, it was set on fire. Same suspects, didn’t even hit the paper nor did the theater even bother pursuing them. I guess they didn’t want the bad publicity making a few black kids angry. After all, whites will just pay it through higher insurance premiums…

The big picture? Coon Rapids is vastly white. Only a small amount of blacks in a once quiet suburb cause incredible amounts of havoc. Less than 6% black today and this has been going on for years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_Rapids,_Minnesota

Then again, blacks are about 6% of the states population yet commit half of the murders here. On a side note, 20 years ago they were soaking up over a third of our total welfare dollars.  Not once is any of this ever talked about in the media. 

Blacks are single handedly destroying this state. Minnesota “nice” thinks throwing more money at them, giving them positions of power in government (You should look at how overrepresented they are, it is insane), apologizing for their crime, etc, is somehow going to win them over to liking white people. In 30 years of this disaster, nobody has even kind of changed from this position. 

You should do a story on the collapse, rebuilding and remodeling, and then collapse and then bulldozing of the Brookdale Mall… Yep, the fellas came in. Stealing, fighting, harassing. Then they thought spending millions to remodel was the answer. Nope, demographics.

Hell, we hit national news for all the robberies happening on Coon Rapids Boulevard during the housing boom which brought in a ton of blacks due to the government just throwing loans at them.

After the foreclosures happened and those same blacks left, the robberies stopped. Weird, I just can’t get my head around it…

Letter from Suburban Businessman

Colin,

Saturday afternoon after a business trip to St. Louis Friday afternoon for a save the day overnight effort to hang onto a very important customer- in essence a 19 hour string of work that ended satisfyingly enough – I made what was supposed to be a 3 or 4 min pit stop at Wal-Mart back in town for a bottle of wine and some cigarettes on my way home from Ohare. 

I just moved from Chicago to the suburbs- a fairly nice one- June 1- partially to get away from the constant argie bargie I experienced like I said the last few years on the north (good) side of Chicago (side note- a liquor store would have sufficed fine but I was tired and missed it so figured a quick in and out at the Wal-mart in front of me for some wine would work followed by about 20 hours of well deserved sleep). 

Well that didn’t happen. I was in and out sure but as I was checking out I hear 5 loud pops outside- knew they were gunshots right away. Madness ensues. Didn’t see a black person in the store or in my neighborhood up until this point but low and behold I walk out calmly to a black man on his back bleeding out of his stomach- with an absolutely enormous black woman walking behind me then around me to him – with 4 kids screaming and crying in tow – and I see a few fellas running down and out of the parking lot. 

As I called 911 I thought to myself both,”bad day to stop at Wal-mart” and “where the hell did I move to?” As I’m walking to my car the officers finally begin to show up and exactly what I was afraid of happening happened: I’m detained for questioning and my car – untouched – is going to be impounded as evidence.

I’ll give you the long and short – I was finally allowed to leave around 2330 when I got there at 1545. A 5 min in and out turned into an almost 8 hour ordeal for myself and about a dozen others that were finally allowed to leave with our vehicles except the 2 unfortunate souls with gunshot holes through theirs… How lucky I was the detective reminded me or he would have had to take me downtown even though I told you exactly what I told him about 5 times before he actually let me sign the damn statement.

My phone had long died hours ago. Walmart had closed. I was just told to: shut up/sit there/wait.

Fun Bonus fact: While I was sitting on a bench those 8 hours in the rain, just steaming along with the others – the officers went and bought the wife/gf of the “victim” and her 4 kids Subway sandwiches and bought them toys from Wal-Mart to play with – I have pictures and video of all of it. 

Fair enough with the kids but before a portion of the audience hates me I figured I’d save the best for last: as the officers show up and walk me and others attempting to leave back to the store for our long night ahead – the “victims” wife/gf literally flops to the ground and insists that glass from somewhere must have cut her and she needs medical attention right along with her man – the actual gunshot victim… Remember I walked out and she was behind me – holding 2 of her 4 kids – no blood anywhere other than her man’s and she is flopping around like a fish all of a sudden. 

There was no glass. She wasn’t shot. She was no closer than I was to the shooting if and when you read the story she was walking out after me and during this “custody dispute” as it has now been named. She had sent her new man to meet her baby daddy to exchange the kids while she finished shopping. 

Obviously it went swimmingly. Feel bad for Wal-Mart’s lawyers here because when I told the detective that fact about how impossible it was she was injured he said this exactly -“that’s for the lawyers to decide sir my concern is the crime committed” and as we went back and forth when I insisted he put it in the statement that it was impossible for her to be physically injured when I wasn’t he just said that was tertiary to his job and would not include it in my statement and only got his way because I was about 3 days overdue for a night of sleep.

Argie bargie in the Chicago suburbs now Colin. Hours and hours of our tired/hard working lives taken away/a pissed off fiance to come home to in my case/ my new neighborhood’s property values affected… But I finally did hear what the detective was trying to tell me at the end there during our dispute about what to not include in my statement…”look sir – we do not want to make the black kids angry…”

Letter from Section 8 Housing

Damn, Colin… I wasn’t sure if you knew that Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) can be revoked if any member of the household commits a drug crime or is convicted of a felony. 

Now if your local housing authority is like mine, they don’t gaf about putting violent teens and welfare families right in the house next door to you. Often they pay as little as $30 a month to live in the same housing type a working person goes into debt for 30 years to do. 

But I digress. We had a family with two teen boys that stole anything that wasn’t nailed down. They eventually stole my good friend’s mom’s car as it idled on a cold winter morning. Then they stole her dad’s car. It is also suspected they stole my other neighbor’s car. 

They ran out of gas in an inner city neighborhood, a policewoman saw them. They had a gun and drugs in the car. They were convicted. I called CMHA (Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority), told them the situation and that they needed to revoke moms voucher. 

Oh they hemmed and hawed, lied and said it wasn’t their property-it absolutely was!, claimed they had no access to juvenile records-another lie. I had enough. Told them they had 2 weeks to get those assholes out or I was going to make a huge stink. Finally they moved in the dark of night. I told them they’d better do a good job of vetting the next folks they put in. They did. But they don’t consider robbery, burglary, assault big enough crimes upon which to issue eviction notices.

Just in case you didn’t know, Section 8 housing is a huge financial burden on school districts. There is no tax collected or paid by any properties owned by the housing authorities. In my neighborhood, a welfare mom with 4 school age kids costs other homeowners $11000 per child. My suburban school district was one of the best in Ohio 40 years ago and now ranks lower than any inner city school. We are illegally taxed at a higher rate than is allowable by law to pay for this nonsense.

As a woman it pains me a bit to say this, but this is the destructive results of single mom households. I’m not talking divorced women but rather women who make babies, expect others to pay and raise them, with nothing but ignorance to guide them. These Louisville kidscare the spawn of these females.

Just a side note, I knew as soon as the Virginia Beach shooting  occurred that the shooter was not white. I knew he was black or Muslim.  If it had been a white guy we’d have been told what he once said in daycare. But this shooter didn’t fit the narrative/agenda, so suddenly we get no information about him. 

So Colin, I know this isn’t directly associated with the Louisville mob. But it is one of the root causes. Just venting. So fed up with the bullsh*t.

Letter from a California Cop

Hey Colin.

As a 26 year Bay Area cop, I must say you are so spot on about how bogus implicit bias and de escalation “training” is.  The anti bias training is gaslighting and the de escalation training is just part of the fantasy.

It is a tool used against cops when they defend themselves from assault, like with most crimes, it is the victim’s fault, he or she should have ‘de escalated’ the situation. If they didn’t or couldn’t; they deserved it…

As a big sports fan, I ride BART to A’s, Raiders and Warriors games.  You are also right on in your understanding of how BART is.  

Maybe you know this but just in case, I’ll explain why Police Chiefs in California talk the way they do.  Cops’ jobs are protected by civil service rules and it is hard to fire them. But, CA Chiefs are ‘at will’.

In CA labor law this means they can be fired without the protections of civil service procedure. In other words, if their style does not match their boss’, city council or city manager, they can be terminated.  Therefore, they are always one press release away from unemployment.

Meanwhile, in CA county, sheriffs are elected.  They can only be removed by being voted out of office.  They really report to no one.  They are on equal rank with the county board of supervisors.  Therefore sheriffs tend to still talk like cops and say what is on their mind.

I just bought another one of your books from amazon too, the Knockout one.  I’ll read it soon.  

Keep up the good work.

Letter from a Prison Guard

 

Hi Colin.

I am a big fan of yours. I am a white guy who had worked as a NYC Corrections Officer from 1981 and retired as a Captain in 2001.   

Even then they were cooking the numbers, downplaying stabbings and slashings into other things such as fights and or falls into the corners of metal bed frames and lockers.  We had a lot of clumsy inmates. Lol.  

In the early 90s the department averaged 120 stabbings or slashing per month.  I worked in the adolescent facility which accounted for 60 per month or half of all thowe incidents in the various facilities on Rikers Island and borough jails.  

My department which was predominantly black instituted a policy of broadbanding, in the early 80s where employees above  the rank of Assistant Deputy Warden were no longer promoted through taking tests.  

This seriously had an impact on the job because most of the bosses were white and there titles or civil service rank could not be removed.  By broadbanding you can now demote someone who couldn’t reduce his jails violence numbers or promote an incompetent brotha because he threw one hell of a party at his house.   

Many of my fellow black Correction Officers were unfortunately sympathetic to the inmates. Some grew up with them and boosted cars with them and others foolishly,  stupidly  believed that the cops picked them up because they are black. Most inmates were arrested 5 or 6 times before they ever did any time in prison.  

The judge would give a guy 1 year probation for a robbery. The guy during this year commits another crime and what do you think the judge does? Gives him additional probation.   Many of my coworkers were anti police, school, white and many unpatriotic.  I sometimes wondered if they would have  my back if I were attacked. 

Of course every inmate told me that they were innocent and that the cops picked them up because they were black.  If that were true it never explained the savagery these inmates demonstrated with violence towards one another if they were innocent angels picked up. The slashings were caused by straight edge razor blades.  

Since they aren’t sold in the commissary then they were obviously brought in by staff. Drugs also. The jail regarding defending yourself against assaults became a hands off policy.  The system had gone from a controlled environment in 1981 where if an inmate assaulted staff he went to the hospital. To an out of control one where defending yourself or another can cost you your job.   

They actually made the jails a better place for a brotha to live should he unfortunately get caught and gets time than a section 8 housing complex.  I know because in 2006 I worked as an armed guard in one for 14 months until the company that I was working for lost the contract for this complex.  

There were 8 shootings and 1 stabbing during my 14 months there.  One Tennant who got shot in the back happened to make it to the security office before he collapsed.  Not kidding!  

Many tenants urinated in the hallways, stairwells, elevators and threw garbage out of the windows. Vandalism and graffiti were commonplace. There were 2 occasions of wilding where 30 to 40 kids beat up another black kid. No reports to the police when they arrived. On one such occasion when the police were removing a guy the tenants were throwing rocks and eggs.

The Police basically stayed out of this complex to avoid problems.  The FDNY was there on several occasions as some tenants threw items on fire down the garbage chute which would ignite the compactor on fire.  I had worked with a retired cop at this place and for 19.75 an hour. We both should have had our head examined for taking this job.   Sorry for my rambling but keep up the good work Colin.  

Everything you are stating here is spot on!

Letter from a Street Cop

I’ve been a street cop for 26 years.  I use the term “street cop” because I’ve never taken a job that wasn’t waist deep in the fray of violence and suffering that surrounds unknowing communities across the country. Communities that are only blissfully ignorant of the violence, danger, and horror that surrounds them on a daily basis.  

My entire career, I’ve either been in gangs, narcotics, SWAT or on the road as a beat cop the entire time.  I don’t tell you this as a way of bragging, but just as a snapshot of my experience, that it might lend credence to the stories I tell you.

Foot pursuits are one of the most absolutely most dangerous things a human being to do.  We pay police officers across the country to engage in foot pursuits for us to keep the wolves from our doors.  I was recently in a foot pursuit where I avulsed my hamstring.  Major surgery.  Stem cells.  Nine metal anchors.  

And that was a safe foot pursuit.  It was safe, because it was over before it started.  Before evaluating the video, it’s important to note that all foot pursuits end in violence.  There are no “time outs.”  Once a suspect choses to run and an officer chooses to chase him, it is mutually accepted that there will be violence.  The only dispute is who the victor will be.  

 I can say from personal experience that the fear of physical harm or death makes an otherwise rational, normal human being capable of unspeakable acts of violence.  Saying it’s a “battle for survival” is cliche.  I call it a “battle not to die.”   

Name another profession where that is a daily mental rehearsal.  That being said, when an officer choses to initiate a foot pursuit (I say “choses” because there is no policy or law requiring officers to chase people on foot) he or she voluntarily signs up to play a deadly game of “try not to die.” As a side note, I predict that in our lifetime(s), we will see a moratorium on foot pursuits.  Like vehicle pursuits, foot pursuits will go the way of the Dodo.

On this video, brave officers from one of the most dangerous police stations on planet Earth, Shootin’ Newton, were working enforcement.  It is well known that traffic stops are one of our last remaining tools for initiating contact with people in high crime areas.   

As police are continuously cut down at the knees and stripped of their abilities to do their jobs in the name of “Criminal Justice Reform,” a staunch knowledge of the vehicle code is one of our last tools for enforcement.

When a suspect choses to flee from police, it is never for anything “good.” When a suspect flees a car at night in the projects, it can only be for something “incredibly bad.”  One of the most astonishing aspects of police work in an “urban” environment is the fact that, almost literally, no one has a job.  

The section 8 scam artists and welfare queens have mastered the art of gaming the taxpayers.  Bounce from baby momma to baby momma. Impregnate as many women as possible. She gets the welfare benefits and you get the flophouse benefits. Symbiotic.  

Any police activity in the projects will gather a crowd of 50-100 men, women and children within one minute. Whether it be an innocuous, uneventful traffic stop or a foot pursuit that ends in gunplay, the song remains insane. Imagine an entire giant housing complex comprised solely of people who have been taught two things: They are victims of white racism and police are the enemy. It’s a war zone. For real.

It was surely not the first time these officers had run through this housing complex. They were well aware that a hostile mob would surround and video tape (albeit redundantly) their every move. One hundred black George Hollidays looking for a payout.  It’s like being hounded by the paparazzi only you’re not famous and the photographers want to ruin your life.  

When the officers took off running after the driver of the car, their entire being was focused on capturing him.  They knew danger was afoot and had drawn their weapons, wisely, in anticipation of danger.  Now, as a person with an astoundingly perilous resume and a trove of legitimate street experience, I can tell you the last thing these officers expected was an unrelated, unprovoked ambush.  

Tunnel vision is real.  You focus on the person running from you. I can honestly say that in the hundreds of foot pursuits I’ve been directly involved in, I’ve never anticipated a third party to cut me off and start shooting me. I start every day of my life watching content posted by Colin Flaherty.  Twenty six years of pent up disbelief and anger are finally given a voice through him. 

Even with a full career and a daily dose of reality from Colin, I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this video.  There is a war on cops.  A presidential administration succeeded in forever vilifying its nation’s police while simultaneously granting blacks crime as their new entitlement.  

The vehicle was stopped for committing an overt vehicle code violation (no reason whatsoevah).  The driver fled from the vehicle with a gun in his hand so the police chased him (for no reason whatsoevah).  A third party intentionally cut off the police and began shooting a uniformed police officer.  The wounded police officer returned fire (for no reason whatsoevah).  An angry mob (in the middle of the night, mind you) swarmed on the wounded policeman and his partner, Obama phones glowing in the evening darkness, waiting to capture the footage that would be a payday for them.  

If you listen to the video, you can hear the crowd calling the officers “motherfuckers” whilst damning them to hell.  You know, for the egregious act of shooting back at someone who was shooting you.  I don’t know how anyone even applies for this job anymore.  I personally can’t wait to get out.  

My friends worked that station with LAPD.  My friend told me a story of fishing line being strung across the “cut” of the projects.  The residents knew about the line and avoided it.  But an unknowing, brave police officer would not.  One officer ran into the fishing line and spent about two weeks in the ICU recovering.  

Attacking police is the new normal.  Setting traps for them is the new normal.  Shooting them is the new normal.  Videoing them and calling them “motherfucker” after a fresh bout of “try not to die” is the new normal.  Black criminality, entitlement, and victimhood are the new normal.  Killing cops is becoming the new norm.  It’s all because of White racism.  You knoooowwwwww iiiiiiiiittttttt!!!!

I’m glad the officers involved are OK.  

They will never be the same, but they’re OK.  The projects will always be dens of crime and violence.  Cops will continue to wade into that fray. Blacks will continue to attack and ambush us…forever.

We’ll come to work anyway.  Maybe remind the few, if ill of us they speak, that we are all that stands between the monsters and the week.  

Letter from a Home Invasion Averted

Dear Colin, 


I know you are probably bombarded with stories from fans and viewers, but I hope you get a chance to read this. I want to tell you about an incident that happened to me this week. 

Three days ago, I was sitting on my front porch smoking a cigarette. Mind you, it was 8:00 in the morning. A fella drove by and started honking his horn at me. I have no idea who this person was, so I knew it wasn’t a friendly “hello!”.

I just ignored him and continued reading the e-book I was reading on my phone. He honked again and began shouting “hey!”. I figured “Oh, he’s just cat-calling me, I’ll just go inside. He’ll get the picture.” I got up, went inside and locked the door behind me.

The fella was not pleased. He pulled up in my driveway, got out of the car and began pounding on my door. I went to the window and shouted for him to get off my porch. He turned and went back to his car and drove off. My husband heard the banging and got up to come see what was happening. I explained to him what had just happened. I told him I didn’t get a plate number but I described the car to him.

We figured that was the last we’d see of him. I’ve been cat-called before, like most females, but never had anyone take it to that level. Then today, around noon, I heard a bang on the door. I thought it may be my landlord. I went to open it, and there was the same fella, same car. I sternly asked what he wanted?

My one year old came waddling up to the door. “Oh, uh….I was wondering if this place is for rent, or if you know any places around here that are available?” I coldly stared him down and asked him if I looked like a damn real estate agent. I saw him sizing me and my toddler up. I knew this was a bullshit ploy and I was internally kicking myself for not bringing my pepper spray to the door with me.

He continued standing there trying to keep the conversation going, looking for some excuse for me to let him inside, or continue talking to me. I shouted for my husband and I told the fella, “Next time I see you, I’m calling the police!”

My husband came to the door and asked him what he wanted? Again, the fella repeated the bullshit story about looking for a rental. Then he turned around sheepishly and left. I remembered one of your videos in particular, where a fella went crying to the local news that he was simply looking for directions to get to his school, when an “evil, no-good racist” threw him off his porch and informed him that he had a gun!

In that story, the local news reporters happily played along. I was waiting for news cameras to show up at my door asking me why I’m such a hateful bigot and why did I have to throw that poor Jehovah’s Witness off my doorstep when he was just trying to share God’s word with me???

But I’ve seen enough of your videos and read your books, and I know that the fellas like to invite themselves into people’s homes and the family living inside usually turns up dead, raped, robbed or lit on fire.

Just wanted to say thanks for what you do, and for keeping us aware and alert. If any reporters come knocking on my door, asking me about the incident, trying to spread more denial, deceit and delusion, I’ll let you know! Like you always say, we’re just being sized up. They don’t need to use the phone, they don’t need a dollar, they don’t need directions to the school and they’re not looking for a place to rent.

This guy just wanted to see who lives here, if I’m alone, am I armed, am I onto his ploy or am I naive and an easy target? Fortunately, this didn’t turn into a tragedy. Thanks for keeping us informed! Have a good day!