Trying again.

Richard Noren told the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska) about a break-in that happened at his house, "It had to be a smash and dash thing." He went on to say that he reasoned from the kicked-in doors and the limited amount of missing valuables that robbers had hit his house quickly while he was on vacation and then just as quickly exited. The thieves had taken a computer and two pistols. Furthermore, he told reporters, he figured that the thieves would come back for more. And he was correct.

Noren and his wife learned about the break-in on December 29 while they were on vacation, when they received a call from their daughter telling them that their house had been robbed. They hurried home and contacted police. Then Noren decided to lie in wait that night to see if the burglars would hit again to get some of the stuff that they'd left behind. He parked his car a distance away and waited in a darkened house for the burglars to return.

A short while past 4 a.m., he heard a car drive up and down the street "half a dozen times." Then it was game time. Noren told the Daily News that the car stopped and a man got out. The man came up to Noren's front door, knocked, and then left. Fifteen minutes later the same guy came back and began "fumbling, vigorously, trying to break in the main door," Noren said.

Noren flung open the door, grabbed the guy's collar with one hand, and pointed the shotgun at him with the other hand. He held him for police. Arrested was Tracy Randall, "a 32-year-old on probation with a long rap sheet, on burglary charges."

In recounting the incident, Noren commented, "There has to be vigilance in us or we will all be victims forever." A second man, who was in Randall's car, was questioned and released. Randall, of course, denies that he was involved in burglarizing Noren's residence the previous night.

Almost surprisingly, the Anchorage police commended Noren for his actions: "'Sometimes you need to take steps to protect yourself,' Anchorage police burglary Sgt. Ron Tidler said. 'I'm not advocating go grab a gun and stick it in the ear of anybody knocking at your door by any means.... But people should take reasonable measures to protect themselves--whatever they deem reasonable.'"