I used to live in a very remote, wooded area on Valley Forge Mountain. My husband travelled internationally, and I would be left alone with my two children and dogs. We had no street lights, AND we had a peeping tom. Our house was a comtempory (practically all glass) so it was always a challenge to keep his prying eyes out. We all, including the police, knew who it was. He lived a few neighorhoods over, wiith children, and was a Boy Scout leader.
Finally my husband bought me a .22. One night (after hundreds of nights) I heard him trying to open my front door. I don't know where I got the nerve but I went to the door, flung it open. He ran through our woods and I yelled, "halt or I'll shoot." He didn't stop, so I emptied the gun in the woods, called the police. I hadn't shot him, but when the police came to my house, they said, "If you ever do shoot this basta_d, pull him into your house.
It was so scary being a young mother and to lie in bed, not wanting to move because I heard "him" and then in the next second you're like a mother bear, my God, my children. And off I had to go.
I know that feeling well. We were living in a trailer, and my husband worked nights. One night, I heard voices, and somone prowling around on our front porch. I yanked that door open, and screamed at the top of my lungs, "GET OFF MY PORCH!!!" It was a cat! I screamed so loud, that I woke up the whole neighborhood, and I stood there and watched all of their house lights pop on. My whole body shook for almost 2 hours, and the next day, I was so hoarse, I couldn't speak. But I was determined, to keep whoever it was, out of my house. And those voices, I heard? It was coming from my daughter's virtual nano pet, wanting to be fed, lol. She had left it in a window sill, and it sounded just like whispering, coming from outside. But, that experience taught me, that I was the type, to go down fighting, and strangely enough, it empowered me. I'm one to stay up most of the night, so it would be almost impossible, for a prowler to get in, unannounced. Another night, in another house, I was laying on the couch, and saw our doorknob, slowly turning. I jumped up, turned on the lights and yelled for my husband. We also had a neighborhood peeping tom, and a neighbor had caught him looking in our bathroom window, earlier in the week. And this was one of the best, quietest neighborhoods in town. Not too long ago, 2 thugs broke into an elderly couple's home in my town, and killed the man, (who barely had time to wake up). They then raped and kidnapped the lady and threw her in the trunk of her car, and took off. Where they were taking her, I don't know, but she managed to escape from the trunk, and drive herself off, after they stopped and went into a house. She found the police station, and of course, they didn't believe her, (sigh), but then they saw where she had been duct taped. The cops found those 2 idiots, walking down a country road. As they were hauling them to the station, one of the guys made up and sang a rap song, about what he had just done...all recorded. He got the death penalty, and his mother, slept during his trial. (another sigh} Anyway, the victims were intheir 80s, and this woman is my hero.