It’s night. You’re home alone, except your two small children are in the living room playing. There’s a frantic pounding at the door. You answer, and it’s a complete stranger.
“Please! Help me!” the stranger begs. “He’s going to kill me!”
The stranger looks frantically down the street. You can see someone approaching. This person looks very strong, very angry (and thus probably not in the self-preserving frame of mind), and very determined. He has a gun.
Assume that there’s enough time before the attacker gets to the porch that if you slam the door in the stranger’s face, the stranger will run, drawing the attacker away from you and yours. Let’s also “level the playing field” a little in terms of your individual home, and say that there’s a small, but non-zero chance that this attacker could get inside before summoned police could arrive.
What do you do? And, more interestingly in my mind, does your answer (or even your inclination) at all change depending on the gender, age, or even race of the endangered stranger?
I know a firefighter who got into this exact situation.
He made sure the door was locked (it was a glass door so he could clearly see the woman in distress) and he watched as the assailant came up behind the woman and shot her in the head.
The guy looked at him, and then took off running. He credits keeping the door locked as helping keep him and his fellow firefighters alive.
The moment you get involved in something like this is the moment you become a potential target. The only way you should ever open the door is if you are heavily armed and ready to start a gun battle. Cops won’t go into such a situation if they are not in SWAT gear with a riot shield and a squad full of officers, why should you?
As an aside, I was inspired by the horror trope (appropriately enough, for the season) of a victim running away from the monster/killer/whatever, coming across a house or something, and pounding on the door, screaming for help. It made me wonder just who would be willing to open the door to aid someone despite the werewolf/mansquito/machete wielding maniac right behind them. Then I thought of the Black Guy Dies First horror trope, and it made me wonder if someone would be even LESS inspired to help such a victim than your typical slasher film nubile blonde coed.
Thus this thread.
So the guy was in sight of a man with a gun, with only a piece of glass in between them? It sounds a little lucky that the man with the gun didn’t just take a shot at him right then and there.
My first thought was, “How do I know this is not a team effort to get inside my house?”
I could totally see that being a ploy. One person runs to a house, crying and screaming they’re about to be attacked and then once inside your home, they pull a gun or knife and let their accomplice in.
I assume that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the stranger, yourself and your family would be both safe once you let him in and close the door.
So, I don’t really see the dilemna, here. I wouldn’t leave the stranger outside on the off chance that his agressor would be a homicidal maniac bent on breaking my door and killing everybody in the house just because I tried to protect his original intented victim.
And I would definitely consider morally guilty anybody not letting the man in if something bad happened to him. A very remote risk for yourself isn’t a good enough justification to avoid helping a person in danger.
Yes, it could be. But do you think it’s really likely? Going this way, you wouldn’t help anybody in any circumstance because there’s always some conceivable risk for yourself.
Also, any kind of attempt to enter your house could equally be a criminal ploy. So, again, using this risk as an excuse woudln’t really fly with me unless you don’t ever let anyone in.
Oh, no, I totally don’t think it’s likely. Still, it’s the first thing I thought of. Also don’t think it’s likely a stranger would ever run up to my house screaming to be let in. My neighbor with the asshole boyfriend, yes. Strangers, no.
And no, I don’t ever let anyone in who I don’t know or haven’t arranged to come over, like the plumber.
Doesn’t sound like any firefighter I know, even the one that was an arsonist. I’ll open the door. If the guy is bigger than me I might grab a weapon first. If anyone is home with me they’ll be right on the phone to the police. The only thing slowing me down is keeping Blackjack from ripping his throat out, or at least sounding like he will.
At night? And you don’t have a weapon in your hand? You think a door will protect you in this kind of situation?
Used to live across the road from a state park. Lost & panicked hikers all the time, even at night. I helped, weapon in hand.
“It’s for my protection & yours. Any problem?” I am big & ugly biker type. Young women with kids were fine with it.
Gone into freezing water. Gone to look for lost pilot in real bad haze in Houston while low on fuel myself. Found him & led him back too… Picked up really needy hitchhikers that were obviously in trouble, not just hitchhiking …
I say, “It’s for my protection & yours. Any problem?” Never had anyone complain…
I think a lot of people who won’t help have not been where they needed help really bad themselves.
I’m kind of horrified by the reactions people have to this (implausible) scenario. You would honestly leave a terrified and endangered person outside your locked door and watch them die rather than try and help them in some way?
I couldn’t live with myself if I stood and watched as a person killed somebody right in front of me. I’m no hero, but in this simple scenario where what is required of me is to open a door, let someone in, lock the door and call the police, I would do that 100 times out of a 100.
And the idea that this is some ploy to gain access to my house is ridiculous. Has this EVER been done in real life? I’d love a cite.
He was in a fire station in Washington, DC , in the middle of a giant, high crime ghetto. He was explicitly instructed by his fire chief not to help anyone in this kind of situation because it would make all of the firemen targets.
I was thinkng of people like the plumber, in fact. It’s possible that the OP’s situation is a ploy. It’s also possible that the plumber would assault you. Both seem equally far-fetched to me.
It can be a ploy to gain entrance to a home, or your car on the highway/wherever.
This has happened to me in the past. The girl, not a ploy.
I always have a gun in hand when answering the door, and you can bet the banging and screaming will heighten my concern.
Race plays no part in this.
Females? Any age I would bring them in, but keep them down on the floor at gunpoint until help arrives. Not small children, mind you, but anyone old enough or capable enough of pulling out a weapon.
Males? Up to age 15 or so, or perhaps my size. Eat the floor and wait for the cops. Big teens and up? (I think) the likelihood of them being involved in a coordinated attack goes up exponentially after say, age 14 or so, so they get to stay outside with the Brundleflies and coyotes.
This. I have been in serious danger and could not find anyone who would help. I got a real beating and was stabbed twice that night. Turns out it was a case of “Mistaken Identity”.
I also have lived next to a county park with hiking trails galore. It is a really nice place, but it can be spooky at night for the city folks. They get lost and panic they often got to my place very late at night and had no idea where they were. They often thought someone was chasing them.
I also am a big & ugly biker looking fellow. I am intimidating to some folks, or so both my wife and her dad say.
These days, my wife is the one with the weapon. Never had anyone complain about the weapon.
I am a member of a search & rescue organization. As such I have risked my life for others. I can not imagine the guilt I would feel if I locked someone out of my house, only to find out later that they got maimed or killed. To protect myself at someone else s peril is, to me, the epitome of selfishness.
I only use this standard for myself. I can not find fault in a small woman refusing to help a stranger in this situation. Although, my grandma did this more then once, & she was 4’ 10" and 90 lbs. She was intimidating, heck, she scared me & my cousins, all of whom are larger then I.
I thought this was a hard decision but as I have time to think about it it really isn’t.
The guy is after the stranger, he is determined but not necessarily crazy as in kill a random guy crazy. I think I would still step out and help but could I help? The gun does add a bit of a problem. Will he sit 30 feet away and shoot us both or will he want to get all personal over something and go point blank? Hard to tell, go out a side or back door and sneak around even if it takes him shooting the stranger to get distracted enough?
Even though he is obviously not right if I stayed with the children and he came in I doubt they would be in a better situation as if I went out. I go out and somehow save the stranger would be great, I go out and the stranger dies and I somehow get him unarmed and pinned down for law enforcement good, He shoots us both and we die would suck.
