Shoot-out Behind the Jones/Johnston Home

As Tara would say, "We almost got killed Tuesday night"! But as Mary Helen would say, "At least we didn't die"! So here is what happened...we went to bed Tuesday evening thinking it would be like any other...little did we know, it could have been our last! Around 2:30 a.m. I awoke to a loud POP! Buddy lifted his head at the same time and said "Woof", and then went back to sleep. The other dogs and Jerry didn't hear a thing. Jerry was probably dreaming that he was still watching TruTV, so the gunshot didn't phase him. I woke him up and asked him if he heard that loud pop, and he said he didn't hear anything. I was lying in bed trying to figure out what it was when my cell phone rang. It was Mother from the other side of the house asking me if we heard the loud noise. I told her Jerry would get up and check around. My fearless husband got up and took the baseball out of his nightstand drawer...yes, I said baseball, not baseball bat. We do not have any guns, and our only protection is a baseball and Jerry's aim! Anyway, after he was gone for a couple of minutes, I started to take Buddy and go look with him. You would think a dog like Buddy would put a scare into anyone. But I didn't for fear that I would be knocked dead from a baseball hitting me in the forehead! In a few minutes, he came back and said everything looked quiet. We got back in bed, but I couldn't sleep so I was just lying there. About 10 minutes later I heard a man yell right outside our window. He was asking someone if he was okay, and the other man yelled back that he was hurt. I looked out the shutters and could see them in the driveway! Then I saw a car pull up in front of the house, but I couldn't tell if it was a police car or not. I told Jerry there were men in the driveway, and he got his baseball again and told me to call 911. I reported everything to the dispatcher, and she said they would send police out and for me to stay on the line with her. In a few minutes, I walked into the den and saw Jerry talking to a policeman on the front porch. Jerry still had on his underwear! I just wish he would have slipped on some jeans! The policeman told us that the house behind us on the corner had a break-in and the resident was chasing the perpetrator. He was surprised when I told him that I heard what sounded like a gunshot. The resident didn't tell him that part. The policeman told us that when he drove up, the resident was coming out of our backyard and was bleeding and wet. He had been chasing the other man in the creek. I still haven't figured out how he got into our backyard. I don't see any way he could have scaled the concrete retaining wall. I think he came up somewhere else and entered our back yard through the front! And why?? An ambulance came and picked him up and took him to the hospital. The police found out that several gunshots had been exchanged, and they started looking for the gun. The resident told him that he had dropped his in the creek (I don't believe him)! They were in our backyard with flashlights looking in the pool, in the bathhouse, in trash cans, around the trees, and anywhere else he could have stashed his gun! There were several police in the yard behind us where it happened and two police in ours. I finally got back in bed and tried to go back to sleep but at 4:30 a.m. I heard voices again in our backyard. I looked out the window and saw the policemen (with a dog this time) still searching in our yard. They never found anything but were still out here the next morning. I talked to one of them then, and he told me they had a history with these people. They think it is drug-related, and the resident doesn't cooperate with them after it happens. They really think he knows who the perpetrator is, but he acted like he couldn't give them a description because he had on a ski mask. A similar break-in happened at that same house in June! The police did not catch the perpetrator and never found a gun! We are still in danger!! I asked Jerry the next day what he would have done if there had been two men, and he said "Well, I had a golf ball in my other hand"! Somehow, that just doesn't give me the security I need. So Taylor...where can I get that mace??
By the way, the next morning was my first morning back at work and SuperNana that I am, I pulled myself out of bed and made it into the office. I may not have been 100% that day, but boy, did I have a story to tell!