"Firsts" I never wanted to have

As in first 911 call.



First bullet hole in my wall:





and First shattered sliding door:






Tuesday morning, as I was standing in my kitchen calling a friend, I heard a LOUD gunshot and saw/heard my back door shattering.



I started screaming (which my friend on the phone was so lucky to hear), hung up the phone and dialled 911. I was so scared that someone was going to come in through the backyard.



If I wasn't so scared at the time, I probably would have laughed when the operator asked me if I was sure it was gunfire that I'd heard. Yes ma'am. I live in good old Phoenix and I am WELL AWARE of what gunfire sounds like.



The operator assured me that officers were on the way, but none came. I could hear the ghetto bird (a.k.a. police helicopter) outside, and heard tons of sirens, so I figured that the police were chasing the gunman outside.


They finally came about an hour after I called. They came in and out during the rest of the day, taking pictures and updating me on the whole story--the details kept changing. So here's the final story of what happened outside of my house:



Two 20-ish guys were trying to break into a home in a neighborhood across 83rd Ave (a major road--my house backs up to 83rd). The thieves had shattered the homeowners window, cut their phone lines, and attempted a couple of times to enter. Then it seems like the thieves were giving up and leaving in their car with two other girls when the homeowners' son (another 20-year-old) got out his AK47 and started shooting at their car. That's how the bullet ended up in my house way far away. The bullet entered my sliding glass door, went through my wall, entered into my neighbors home and went through several walls before finally stopping. It's a strong gun. The shooter claims that he heard the thieves shooting at him, but the police said the thieves only had a BB gun that looked like a handgun. The thieves ended up crashing their car and trying to escape into the neighborhood and led the police on a short chase, but they were all arrested.


So I'm pretty mad that this kid thought it would be a good idea to start shooting an AK47 towards a residential neighborhood. I know that he was the victim, and probably extremely scared/angry (I know that's how I felt), but really. I'd be a lot more understanding if he'd fired at the guys entering his house instead of trying to chase them down. I'm even more mad at Fox news reporting that neighbors didn't seem to care that he'd gone out into the neighborhood shooting at the thieves. Guess what? I CARE.



I care that I now have $500 dollars or more of damages to pay for (though I'm glad it isn't more $).



I care that the bullet hit the wall only about 5 feet from where Suzanna was laying (she was home sick from school).



I care that I had to spend my day dealing with the police, cleaning up glass and boarding up my back door until the glass company can order a "low E" glass door--it's going to be 5-7 days.



Mostly I'm just thankful we're all OK. Really, really thankful.



But I'd kind of like this to never, ever happen again. Let's have no "seconds" allright?




Here's where the bullet went through my curtains that cover our back door:


I guess the bright spot is that I get to buy new curtains =)