A Reddit user said he was getting home late one night after studying for law school finals when something on his street immediately caught his attention. According to his comment in the thread, it was about 1:30 in the morning when he turned onto his street and noticed a car parked on the side of the road at the house just before his. By itself, that would not have meant much. But he said that as soon as he passed it, the car’s lights came on.
He wrote that the car then pulled out right behind him, and he kept an eye on it as he drove. When he turned into his own driveway, the other car followed. At first, he thought maybe he was overreacting. He said the other car stopped at the bottom of the driveway near the bar, and for a second he told himself maybe the driver was just turning around. But when he got farther up the driveway, he heard the engine rev and then heard the car come flying up behind him.
The poster said he opened the center console where he kept his Glock 17 and texted his wife inside the house, telling her to look out the window and call 911 the second someone got out of that car. He said the vehicle stopped about six inches from his rear bumper. He sat there for a moment because he did not want to escalate something that might still end peacefully, but he also knew his wife and two children were inside the house, and he was not willing to shrug it off if the driver meant trouble.
He wrote that the car started revving its engine again, and that was when he decided he had given the driver enough chances. He threw his door open and jumped out with the gun behind his back. Then, when the other car revved again, he brought the gun out and pointed it toward the engine block. He later explained in the comments that he wanted the driver to see he was armed and willing to defend himself if it came to that, but he still hoped he would not have to shoot. He said it was basically a little higher than low ready, where he could still bring it up fast if somebody got out.
According to the post, the reaction was immediate. He heard someone inside the car yell, and then the driver slammed it into reverse and tore back down the driveway with the tires squealing. By then his wife had already called the police. As soon as he heard sirens, he said he put the gun on the hood of his car and stood away from it so the responding officers would know exactly where it was.
He wrote that the officers showed up, asked where the gun was because his wife had told dispatch he was armed and defending the property, and then had him step away from the car while they got his story. One of the cops told him they had already been hearing reports about teenagers causing problems and thought it was probably them. The officer also joked that they would be on the lookout for teenagers in an SUV with what he called a brown stain on the driver’s seat.
The poster said the officer told him he had done the right thing and was within his rights to draw at that point. He added that once he heard it was probably just teenagers, he was glad they had enough sense to leave before somebody got hurt. But in the moment, he said there was no way he was going to gamble with an unknown driver charging up his driveway in the middle of the night while his wife and kids were inside the house.
Original Reddit post: Do you have a self defense story?
What do you think — once that car followed him into the driveway and came rushing up behind him, would you still be waiting to see if it was a prank, or would that already be enough to treat it like a real threat?
