Almost Shot and Killed AirBnB Guest

[Kathy842]

   My neighbor bought a North Dallas home for short term rentals. In addition to the 3 rooms he rents, he converted the garage to a 4th rental in this home.  He chooses not to maintain the outside of this home. His fence is rotten and falling down and it seems he will not cut the weeds until he gets a notice from the city. 

   March 22, I was watching TV in my sunroom when a man entered  the gate in my backyard wearing a mask.  He saw me through the window, then turned around to exit the gate. He stayed by my garage for about 15 minutes, walking around looking for a way to enter my home. He repeatedly tried the keypad on the garage.  

   I called 911. My door was unlocked because I had the TV antenna hanging outside.  I was afraid to open the door to retrieve the antenna to lock the door with him outside. I had my .38 loaded with the trigger back in case he entered. If I had stepped away, preventing him from seeing me, I'm afraid he would have entered the home and he would have been shot and killed.

   After the police left I  reviewed the cameras and deducted this was my neighbors AirBnB guest. My neighbor will not post pics of his rotten back fence, so his guest have no idea what to look for when taking the alley to find the property they booked. The neighbor only sends a pic of his garage door with an arrow pointing to the gate not shown. This picture looks like many other garage doors in the area. Navigation directions will not pinpoint the correct address when entering the alley. I have reported this to AirBnB but they will not get involved to encourage him to post pictures of the back of his property for guest to identify. AirBnB is on notice that this is a serious safety issue and a guest might get killed if they enter my home. I do not want to kill anyone. I don't want this trouble. I will be detained/questioned and sued at the minimum. If someone enters my home I will not have time to research if this is a meth addict or AirBnB guest. I hate being in this position.

   Background: A mile from my home, Dallas is having a growing population of people pitching tents, living in the city and begging for money at the busy street intersections. I hope to never have to take a life but will do so to protect myself and family.

[Ute42]

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@Nathalie-Et-Gilles0 

I did not suggest that Kathy should kill tourists in her backyard, what I said was if I, Ute, would be a tourist in Texas I would not walk onto a fenced property, and I wouldn't do that either if I was a tourist in Medellin.

You wrote:

• it is not unusual to come in and look for the key box
  and sometimes to knock at wrong door

This must not happen. It is one of the unwanted sideeffects of airbnb-renting that neighbours get disturbed. If You run an airbnb on an ongoing basis this will not only happen once but maybe 10 or 20 times a year. @Kathy842  's  neighbour is clearly at fault for not making sure that guests that check in absolutely cannot confuse the entrance.

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@Ute42 

In community gates , as said @Kathy842 , all the houses are similar.

Many Airbnb have a key box.

It means that you cannot rent a Airbnb in Texas 😆 not be to be killed.

This is the mad point.

[Ute42]

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@Nathalie-Et-Gilles0 

I've heard that some airbnb guests did survive their Texas stay.

Texas isn't all that bad.

[Kathy842]

The homes in this area are not at all similar. But the only thing he sends to identify the garage is a picture of the garage door with an arrow pointing to the gate, but he does not show the gate or the back of the house. The house are nothing alike but most of the garage doors look alike. 

[Colleen253]

@Kathy842 Why dont you laminate a few big Airbnb signs and go paste them all over his garage and gate?

[Dimitar27]

Can you build a normal fence around your home? Something like this...

I mean...is it legal to have such a fence there?

[Sarah977]

@Dimitar27  Electrified? 🙂

[Dimitar27]

Just made of steel. With a door.

[Sarah977]

@Dimitar27  I was being fascetious.

[Kathy842]

And I doubled down.

[Kathy842]

[Suzanne302]

US "gun culture" is that those who scream "Mah 2nd Amendment is a RIGHT" are the same people who seem to get excited about showing off their guns and confronting with aggression anyone doing anything on their property. God forbid someone get lost and try to ask for help.

I just recently had a (presumably) meth head hanging on my front porch. Did I run and get mah gun and wave it in her face and say, "Get the hell off my porch cause this is MY property!!!"

No. I opened the door and said, "Can I help you?" when it was apparent she was drugged up I told her she had the wrong house and needed to leave. She walked to the street then came BACK up to my porch. Did I grab my gun at this point and threaten to shoot her?

No. I opened the door and said firmly, "I'm telling you now to leave my property and do not come back. You need to get off my porch and be on your way."

Not everyone on your property is a threat that needs to be "taught a lesson" with a gun. Even the meth heads. Stop looking for any opportunity to assert your 2nd amendment rights. Trust me, no one is going to take your guns. And no, we're not impressed when you show them off. Anybody can kill someone with a gun. It's not exactly a skill to brag about.

[Sarah977]

@Suzanne302  The US founding fathers would be turning over in their graves to see how the 2nd amendment has been twisted and misinterpreted. If they had the chance, they would repeal it entirely, knowing it has resulted in school children and church goers being massacred and people being shot over some road rage incident.

I read an article where a woman pulled a gun on another shopper in a Walmart for taking the last school notebook on sale.

[Kathy842]

Thank you for all the great advice. I have decided to get rid of all of my guns, lock my gate, and hope no one enters in the future. If someone does enter my gate and walk into my home on the chance my door is unlocked, I will assume the best and ask if they are lost.

[Kath9]

@Kathy842, wow, what a turnaround. Good for you for being open enough to the suggestions here to get rid of your guns altogether. I can't tell you the number of times my guests have gone to my neighbor's house first before finding the right property. I'm horrified to think that if this was America, they might have been shot and killed simply for being in the wrong place! But people here don't automatically assume that a stranger on your property is there to rob, hurt or kill you. They just ask them what they need and send them on their way. I'm not suggesting that there is no crime ever, but because people don't carry guns here, that significantly reduces the fear and stress. Given that you have a poorly signposted Airbnb next door, wouldn't you have just assumed that the man was lost? I'm truly concerned that your first instinct was to grab your gun. Unfortunately, your crazy gun culture has resulted in a culture of absolute fear - it truly is a vicious circle.

As for the homeless people, isn't it better to feel empathy rather than being scared of them? Homeless people don't choose to be homeless, and there is something wrong with a country as wealthy and with as many billionaires as America that allows that level of homelessness to occur. It doesn't take much for the average person to become homeless - that could even be you some day.