Burglary? Disoriented Person at the Door?

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Jeff White

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We had an interesting incident here early Thursday morning.
https://southernillinoisnow.com/202...ral-texico-teen-seeking-help-following-crash/
The Marion County Sheriff’s Department was called to a burglary in progress in rural Kell early this morning where a 17-year-old rural Texico man had broken into a home seeking help following a nearby crash.

The crash occurred in the 5700 block of Kell Road east of Kell when the juvenile was eastbound, lost control, left the north side of the road, struck a tree, spun sideways, and rolled over with the SUV coming to rest on its side.

The driver was able to get out of the vehicle on his own and had gone to a nearby home seeking help for a leg injury. When the occupant didn’t answer the door reports indicate he broke out a window and went into the home. He was inside when deputies arrived. Meanwhile, the occupant had left in her vehicle and waited at the end of the driveway for the deputies to arrive.

Once the situation was clarified, Kell Fire and United Response Ambulance were called to the scene. The juvenile was taken to Salem Township Hospital for treatment.

The occupant of the home did not wish to press charges as she knew the family.

The report of the burglary in progress came in at three Thursday morning.
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I believe the homeowner handled it well. No one was shot. Maybe the homeowner wasn't armed. She did the right thing by leaving the house and calling the police. The young man was lucky that he wrecked his SUV near that house. There are plenty of homes where he would likely have been shot for seeking help. I'm not excusing his breaking into the house but there are quite possibly extenuating circumstances. I'm guessing that he couldn't find his phone in the wreckage and was seeking help for his injury. He was likely disoriented and maybe going into shock. He was in a very rural area and when the homeowner didn't answer the door he decided to enter to try to find a phone to call EMS. The temperature was in the low 30s Thursday morning.

It always pays to figure out what's happening before you engage.
 
Another incident where a surveillance system and a Ring doorbell camera would take care of any issues. Nobody gets shot, the occupant stays in the house and calls for help.
 
I'll bet you another factor that would be easily overlooked is that the teen who did the breaking and entering knew the house and the people who lived there as the article states that the family who lived in the house did not want to press charges because they knew the family (of the teen, I assume). Sounds like these people knew each other, so the teen didn't break and enter a completely unknown house. He knew the people who lived there. I'm not saying it wasn't dangerous...it DEFINITELY was, but it was less so because there's the hope that the occupants would identify him before shooting.

Tough situation...
 
I'm guessing that he couldn't find his phone in the wreckage...
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I'm guessing the same thing. Because I'm guessing it was in his hand and he was looking at it when he left the road.

This is a tough situation indeed.

If I know the person and they appear to be rational, they might get in. In this case, the homeowner chose to flee their house which means either they couldn't recognize the person or still felt threatened even if they did recognize the person.

Given that criminals are known to use innocuous decoys to get people to open their doors to a home invasion type robbery, opening the door seems like a bad option.

For more than one reason, it seems unwise to flee my home if someone tries to break in; similarly unwise to let the break-in proceed unchallenged.
 
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In my home he would be greeted by a loaded firearm. The aftermath his actions would dictate.
The key is to avoid tunnel vision. 90% of the time the bad guys have company.
 
JohnKSa said:
For more than one reason, it seems unwise to flee my home if someone tries to break in; similarly unwise to let the break-in proceed unchallenged.
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I don’t know any names involved, I could probably make a phone call and find out for sure, but I’m betting that the woman in the home was elderly and thought fleeing was a better option then staying in the home and possibly facing a physical confrontation. If it had been someone with nefarious intentions she could have been facing an attack, rape or worse.

This occurred in a very rural part of the county. I don’t see anything wrong with someone who felt they would be unable to defend herself from a physical attack retreating.
 
I'm with post 3. I've done it, sort of. Ran out of gas in my first car at 17 years old (seller had said not to let it read 1/4, but should have said 1/2.) Walked a few miles to my grandfather's, but he wasn't home. Thunderstorm broke just then, so forced open a shed in the back yard to take shelter. Found his full gas can in there and took it with me when I left. Put the refilled can back when I was done. Sadly, he died just a week or so later, before I'd ever gotten to see him again and tell him I'd been by.
 
I don’t see anything wrong with someone who felt they would be unable to defend herself from a physical attack retreating.
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Assuming you're sure there are no accomplices... I'm sure there are folks in different circumstances who might honestly be better off outside their house depending on the situation. For me, things would have to be pretty extreme before leaving the house was the best option. I can only think of a couple of reasonably likely scenarios where I would try to leave the house.
 
Pretty simple with a stranger at my door late at night... The door stays closed and locked - we talk through a nearby window (I'm in the dark -the porch area is well lit up. Need emergency assistance (or to contact friends or family? I'll do it for you...)... If I judge the situation safe we'll proceed from there - even invite them in and care for them myself if needed. The slightest doubt, I'll be sticking with the first scenario...

No one involved will like what happens if they attempt to force entry... least of all me... I spent six months years ago in and out of court before they decided my one and only shooting incident as a cop was justified - and it took me a few years after that to get my head back on straight...
 
Jeff White said something in another discussion that applies here. I'm sure I'm going to quote it wrong so I'm just going to say what I got out of it.

We spend all of our time training for a gunfight that's never going to happen again.

This is the same thing, The odds of this situation ever happening to me are almost nil. If it did happen to me my circumstances wouldn't allow me to leave my home, unless I want to jump out a second story window.

I have a Ring doorbell and I use it. You're not going to enter my home until I'm satisfied that you're not a threat.

If you break into my home I'm going to treat you as a threat until I'm satisfied that you're not a threat.

That does not mean that I'm simply going to open fire but I am certainly going to be preparing to.

I mean, we could keep changing variables to make this a Kobayashi Maru but I've never been in a real world situation that was that ambiguous.

I've never been the victim of a home invasion. I know one person who has ever been the victim of a home invasion and that was actually an attempted rape and I don't know the whole story. It's entirely possible that she left a door or window open in the house.

One time I was at work in the middle of the night doing paperwork in an empty parking lot in the company car.

A guy pulled up in front of me, jumped out of his car and came running towards me. I jumped out of my car while drawing my gun.

It turned out he wanted directions. I don't know if he ever realized how close he was to getting shot.
 
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