Just about every suburban home invasion story starts the same way in Charlotte.

“The doorbell rang and she opened the door …”

And yes, it is almost always the woman who does it.

Years of living in the hood while renovating homes cured me of that. No one ever opens the door for someone they don’t know in the hood. They slide an extra bolt, grab a gun and talk through the door. Good life lesson. We still practice it today at my house. Though we live in a safer neighborhood now, I still get an adrenaline rush when someone knocks on the door. Everyone should.

Here’s what happens when you don’t:

The couple says late Saturday night, their doorbell rang.  The wife opened the door to the three men and was greeted with a gun.

“He put a gun to my forehead, and pushed me down onto the stairs,” she said.

The husband, who was upstairs at the time, ran to his wife’s aid, but quickly realized he was also helpless.

“Seeing my wife on the floor at gunpoint, I just wanted to do what they wanted.”

The three men bound the couple with tape, and proceeded to steal money, a computer, a television, and keys.  The couple says at that point they were worried they would be killed.

A curious neighbor came out to his front yard, startled the men, and they ran off.

“If my neighbor didn’t come out of his door, everything would be gone, and we’d probably be lying in there dead,” the husband said.

The couple both suffered cuts and bruises from the attack.

Suburban life numbs people to the reality of exactly what kinds of monsters share the streets of a city with you. There are no walls or barriers that will keep them out of your neighborhood, or any other.

Bonus Observation: Don’t be fooled by people selling stuff. The most creative home invasion in my neighborhood was done by two guys dressed in suits with copies of the Charlotte Observer tucked under their arms. They claimed through the window that they were selling subscriptions. She opened the door and a life and death struggle ensued.

They had the wrong house, by the way. They were actually looking to rob the drug dealers in a similar looking house one street over.