A story in the Dallas Morning News shows just how bad that advice is -- in many ways
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A woman and her 8-year-old nephew were robbed and briefly kidnapped after a home invasion in Far Northeast Dallas on Wednesday morning, according to a police report.Get that, the 8 year old nephew woke up the home owner. Should she run out and try to make sure he keeps up, leave him behind, tell him to hide? In the meantime, while she is trying to process what is happening, the crooks are moving around inside the house.
"My nephew woke me up and told me someone was robbing the house," said Robertson, 39. "It took me a minute to get acclimated." (emphasis mine)
Police were called to the scene after the woman's mother, Dorothy Robertson, 61, said she woke up in the house to discover the back door kicked in, the living room ransacked and her family missing.
So, Mom's asleep in another room....should the home owner run and leave the mom to fend for herself? Try to manage getting herself, nephew and mom out of the house?
Also note that she didn't call 911. I think this happens frequently from the reports I've read. People don't want to bother the police until they know something is wrong...by then it is too late
If she tries to run....how will she know where the burglar(s) are?
Doesn't that qualify as an armed robbery?
Two men burst into accountant Stacie Robertson's house on Cherry Tree Drive between 8:30 and 9 a.m., according to Robertson and a Dallas police report
When Robertson entered her living room, she said, she encountered a man about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with his face wrapped in a white shirt and a stocking cap. He was armed with a hunting knife and a hammer, she said.
The crook has a weapon that must be used in close proximity (hammer) and a knife that can be thrown (most people don't know how to correctly throw a knife) or used in close proximity. A person with a firearm in the home definitely has the advantage in cases like this.
Legal restrictions that make it harder for criminals to get firearms invariably impact the law abiding owner more. The people who want to restrict firearms seem to find this scenario acceptable -- a female matched against a male will usually lose.
The man punched Robertson in the head, knocking her unconscious, she said.I'm not saying that a firearm could have prevented this, the home owner would have still have to have the mindset and willingness to use the firearm. When I hear "bumps in the night" I do take a firearm to investigate...would the home owner have done that? I don't know.
I do know most crooks armed with a knife would be less likely to try to punch an armed homeowner.
After their belongings had been taken, Robertson said, the shorter of the two men came back inside and asked if she had any cash. She didn't. "He said, 'Wrong answer,' " she recalled.At this point, the home owner is dependent on the whims of the burglar...luckily for her, they were after money.
The man untied Robertson and let her put on sweatpants under her nightgown, then forced her and her nephew into her mother's Honda Civic and told her to drive to a nearby ATM, she said.Notice that this didn't take place at night, it wasn't an out of the way location. Looking at Google Map street view, I'm struck by how much this area looks like my neighborhood. Quiet tree lined residential street. Most people were either at work or in their houses to avoid the heat.
Robertson said she drove to two nearby ATMs as the man held a knife to her throat and threatened to mutilate her nephew. She said she withdrew $400 from each machine with her and her mother's debit cards and handed it to her kidnapper.
My take away from looking at this story? In no particular order
1. Believe your nephew/kids -- unless they have a history of lying, treat a report of an home invasion seriously.
2. Call the police or have someone ready to call the police. Rather have to call them back and report it was a cat on the porch than to go through what these people went through.
3. If possible, put alarms on the entry points. Doesn't have to be monitored alarms, but something to give more warning, possibly alert the neighbors, and definitely make the bad guys think twice about continuing.
4. Don't depend on your neighbors to hear something or come investigate even if they do. The neighbors may not be home, may not think it out of the ordinary.
5. Be armed. A shotgun or handgun trumps a knife or hammer -- if you have the willingness to use the firearm. You don't have to use the firearm, just be ready to IF you have to.
I think the last point is most important, don't you?
Please join the discussion.
5 comments:
Be armed. A shotgun or handgun trumps a knife or hammer
Yes, indeed. I always thought giving them what they want or running away was horrible advice, for the sole reason that it was a dangerous undermining of civil society. After all, what kind of message is it that if you break into someone's house you can just take their stuff and maybe worry about the consequences later?
Great points. As The Pistolero said, simply giving in is dangerous. I'd rather have a fighting chance, and I've taught my family the same.
Lawyer,
We've taught our kids the same. My wife, daughter and sons all know where the firearms are, how to use them, when to use them.
Pistolero,
i agree with the undermining of society, a point I plan to address when I finally figure out how to word a post on property rights.
Thanks to both of you for stopping by and commenting.
I need to get some manner of alarming system for my apartment... Thanks for reminding me of it. But anything is better than relying on my ears when I am dead-assed asleep.
And, more importantly than the firearm, perhaps, is that second part of #5 you mentioned - the will to use said firearm. Robb linked to some Brit who royally wailed on some punk-assed kid who broke into his house with a knife... That man had the will, and while he lacked tools, per se, his body was sufficient to make up for the government-mandated deficiency.
A 39-year-old housewife, to be momentarily stereotypical, probably does not have the body to be able to effectively combat a younger assailant. And that is where firearms come in - the great equalizer between a smaller woman and a larger man.
Now, is retreating always a bad idea? Probably not. But it most assuredly should not be your primary course of action. This abode, while it is an apartment, is mine, and woe be to he who would unlawfully invade it, and threaten my wife or me.
Linoge, I'd say retreating from a threat USUALLY is a bad idea. There may be a few circumstances where it is a good response (the best I can think is if you're attacked in your car by an attacker on foot) But generally my MO is to avoid risk that COULD be danger to prevent the attack to begin with. But when a wary situation suddenly becomes potentially deadly, fleeing is rarely a good idea as it throws in so many risky variables.
Also on topic, this reminds me of a story. I was laying in bed fast asleep when I woke up. After a few seconds I realized something had woke me up. Took a bit longer to realize it was noises. Then I realized it was the sound of a person. I went into alert, somebody was in my house. I was just about to reach for the gun when I noticed I was alone in bed. The wife had woken up early and was getting a few things done for a project at work.
Now if that had not been a drill I would have had to ALSO unlock my gun as it is stored in accordance with Mass gun laws (hopefully soon to be stricken) that's MORE time the intruder would have to do whatever he wanted to do.
I'm all for locking up guns, but when it comes to a gun you'll reach for when you only have seconds, locks are bad fucking news, especially when sometime when your reach for it you may have just been woken out of a deep sleep!
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