Most kids were raised with one universal rule drilled into their heads: do not answer the door for anybody when home alone. It didn’t matter if someone knocked politely, rang the doorbell five times, or claimed to be a friend of your mom’s.
If you were home alone, you stayed quiet, hid under the table, and acted like the house was completely empty. It could be fun pretending to be undercover agents.
But for a pair of siblings, being home alone turned into a situation way scarier than ignoring a random knock at the front door.
In 2015, TikToker Madi (@madii.vogel) and her brother fought off an intruder with Nerf guns and kitchen knives while they were home alone.
At the time, she was around 11 or 12 years old, and her brother was only nine. It was the very first summer that their parents had left them home alone together.
One morning, Madi’s brother ran into her bedroom in a panic. He told her that someone was hiding in the cubby under his bed. She decided to investigate. They cautiously walked into his room, holding hands.
When they saw the cubby door flip open, they exchanged a look before bolting out of the room. As they ran toward the front door, they grabbed whatever weapons they could find along the way.
Madi armed herself with kitchen knives and lighters while her brother opted for his giant Nerf gun. Somehow, their choice of weaponry just made sense in the moment.
“At this point, we can hear that whoever is upstairs in the cubby knows that their cover has been blown, and they’re now running around frantically in the upstairs of our house,” said Madi.
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The siblings sprinted out the front door and hid on the side of their wraparound porch so that the intruder wouldn’t be able to see them. They didn’t know if the intruder had a weapon or was intending to harm them.
From their hiding spot, they watched a man leave their house, carrying a black trash bag. They waited until they could no longer see him before going to a neighbor’s house, where they called the police and their parents.
Now, years later, Madi can laugh at the absurdity of the situation: two terrified children defending their home from an intruder with nothing but toy guns and kitchen utensils.
“Thankfully, the person didn’t actually take anything of value,” recalled Madi. “I think pretty much the only things that were taken were clothing items. Don’t actually remember if they ended up finding out who did it.”
“This was before the age of Ring cameras and home surveillance cameras. I just think the story is kind of funny that we escaped a home invasion with Nerf guns.”
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
