Man With a Shotgun

[Stercutus]

So, you live in town. On Wednesday you wake up and get in your car to drive to work and your BOB is gone along with all your goodies because you forgot to lock your car and ... meth. You have a video camera covering your driveway but all you can see is an older teenager wearing a white hoodie on a dark colored bicycle riding off with your stuff.

Early Friday morning before sun up you go out on your front porch and see an older teenager wearing a white hoodie pushing a dark colored bicycle up your street. He has a shotgun strapped to his back and several odd backpacks strapped to the bicycle. WWYD, if anything at all?

[MacWa77ace]

Does anything look like its yours?
Is open carry legal in this town?


Yes/Yes
Confront. Confirm. Citizens arrest.

Yes/No
Call Cops, Confront. Confirm. Citizens arrest.

No/Yes
Nothing

No/No
Call cops.

[MPMalloy]

911 right off the bat. I'm not doing anything else because...reasons.

[woodsghost]

I reported the items as Stolen, right?

Call cops.

It looks like my stuff? Probably put on a pistol and get in the car. Drive around the neighborhood nonchalantly while on the phone with police.

Engagement would be avoided.

Based on past experience, the police would not appreciate my being in the car.

[raptor2]

Observe carefully to ensure that what I am seeing is a shotgun. Note I would consider the fact that he is pushing the heavily ladened bike as indicative of either exhaustion, overloaded ill balanced bike or he is looking for a place to dump it or rest. The shouldered shotgun is going to be difficult to remove while keeping the bike upright. So if he drops the bike that is an indicator he may be going for the shotgun, which gives me time to find cover. Either way he is not going to get too far with all of that stuff.

Call 911 to report it.

Use my phone to video the person from a safe distance. Avoid contact.
Aggressively avoid any close quarter contact.
I would retreat into the house and up until the point the point the shotgun was brandished no CCW would be drawn.

Document with video to the extent possible while waiting for LEOs.

Note at my home the JPSO would be there in 3 to 5 minutes. At my office the NOPD would not show up. At my farm I would take the extra step to see if he was wearing any hunter orange and if not all the local Wildflife and Fisheries poacher line and they would have someone there ASAP.

So at home the guy would be questioned and/or dealt with by JPSO.
At work my stuff would be gone and the NOPD would not give shit, unless of course I made an attempt to recover it.
At the farm the MWF guys would find him quickly to talk to him.

[boskone]

Call 911.

Get a better picture, if practical (e.g. subtly). Post to e.g. Imgur, to prevent unauthorized access to my phone (at the federal level, cops can just poke around your phone even if you give it to them for a specific reason).

(Note that this is why, despite the potential convenience, I don't use my insurance app for identification.)

[RoneKiln]

I live across the street from a school. I'm not opposed to open carry, but these days it's insanity to openly carry a long arm near a school. I'm calling 911, going inside my house, and filming from the window if I can.

I'm also blocks from the police station. They'll be there real fast.

[Mannlicher]

In light of current reality, I would not have left gear vital to my survival overnight in a vehicle. Especially an unlocked vehicle.
Second thought. With the civil unrest in our cities today and the uncertainty of the police even showing up, you might well have some serious decisions make, as to how you will proceed. I am sure it’s prudent to keep your own counsel.

[Firemedic2000]

In light of current reality, I would not have left gear vital to my survival overnight in a vehicle. Especially an unlocked vehicle.
Second thought. With the civil unrest in our cities today and the uncertainty of the police even showing up, you might well have some serious decisions make, as to how you will proceed. I am sure it’s prudent to keep your own counsel.

Ding ding we have a winner here with common sense. Never leave anything in your vehicle you value.

[Andimia]

A car is not a safe, don't keep anything in your car of value, especially overnight. My car is always empty because I live in a city and leaving something in your car is a good way to get a window smashed.

If the scenario did happen to me I would jog up the alley to head off the person (but not be out of breath) so I can pass them on the sidewalk (again city, lots of people out walking) while casually pretending to be on a video call and record or capture their image, confirm my belongings. Depending on their demeanor when passing I would follow at a long distance to see if they lead me to the address they're staying at but if they're on edge/high I'd probably just go home. I would post on our neighborhood Facebook page to see if anybody else had things stolen recently and had images or know who that person is. I live in a close city neighborhood. If it's a drugs thing and neighbors know who he is we would try to get a drug counselor to the person, if others have had hostile encounters with this person and they really are dangerous I'd bring what information I have to the police station and write my things off as gone forever. The police in my city have never solved any property crime I've been a victim of nor really tried even with clear security camera footage.

Also kudos to whomever can keep a white hoodie clean, I'd never attempt that.