1st post and car stolen at gun point

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My 1991 F150 has a broken rear fuel pump. Instant, unobtrusive kill switch that you have to know about to fix. Not perfect, but better than usual. It's also a 5-speed with a stock Ford radio and nothing obvious inside.

On another note, my fiance CCWs a RIA 1911-CS after an attempted carjacking in El Paso, TX. There's a dent in her door, but it could have been a whole lot worse.
 
Anyway, what about the breakins at 11pm. What did they do wrong. Sorry, but bad things happen. I take it that you don't leave your house after dark right? I wouldn't either if I lived in meridian. I come up regularly for a week at a time bc of all the breakins to secure peoples homes.
 
fallout mike said:
So dammit boy, what did the people do that gets guys kick
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fallout mike said:
Anyway, what about the breakins at 11pm. What did they do wrong. Sorry, but bad things happen. I take it that you don't leave your house after dark right?
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This is complete nonsense. What do home break-ins have to do with the OP? What does going out after dark have to do with not putting yourself in a bad situation that is unnecessary? I don't go to atm's at 11pm either, because it's not a smart move.

This is strategies and tactics - as in think about what you need to do and prepare a smart strategy to avoid bad situations. Like avoid leaving your running vehicle unattended after dark where perps might be waiting in ambush. :rolleyes:

fallout mike said:
I wouldn't either if I lived in meridian. I come up regularly for a week at a time bc of all the breakins to secure peoples homes.
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All towns have criminals and no area is safe from criminal activity as the OP found out - after making the wrong assumption about the "good parts of town". Your statement while meant to do the opposite, supports my position to be careful.
 
DPotvin said:
Just recently an employee’s car was stolen from the mechanics shop just up the street from where I work. While making deliveries another employee saw the car parked at a Checker Auto Parts not 2 miles from where the car was stolen. He pulled over and called 911. As he sat in the parking lot he watched them strip the car and bring the parts in to sell.

The cop who arrested them and took the report said it’s extremely common for car thieves to strip the car within two miles of the place they stole it from. Not much help in a situation like this of course; I just thought that was interesting.

Glad you’re OK and because I’m an overprotective father, I’m glad he asked about kids.
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Because I'm an overprotective father, I would have put two into his chest the minute he asked about kids.
 
That first posts got sent while I was typing and it wouldn't let me edit for some reason. The main thing I was trying to say is that you can't live in a glass box and be scared to go out at night .
 
fallout mike said:
The main thing I was trying to say is that you can't live in a glass box and be scared to go out at night .
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No one suggested that.

fallout mike said:
Home breakins has nothing to do with the op. Nor does checking your mail. Stupid things happen.
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Checking the mail was/is the OP. Stupid happened, but it could have easily been avoided.

---

ps - I'm usually right, it's a character flaw of mine. :D
 
On My previous car I moved the clutch switch to a secret location, never thought about it on this car. May have helped when he stalled it since he wouldn't have been able to re-start it without finding the switch or pushing the car. The next car is getting the same treatment. Easy and effective.
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Use a fuel pump switch and wire it into another on/off switch in the car. Google it, it's easy to install and more effective. As long as you shut down the engines before exiting. That way you can even hide a key on the outside of your car. Even if the thief gets the key, he would need to figure out how to work the switch before starting the car.

This would've been better than anything else anyone has mentioned in preventing car theft. Even if you had a weapon, you're right in that you wouldn't have had the chance to use it.
 
I never leave my truck un-locked, much less running. That said I think in this instance it probably worked out in your favor that yours was running. In the state of Mississippi you would have been justified in drawing a weapon and firing, provided that you had proper license and your firearm. That said, being justified in using deadly force does not always mean that deadly force is the best solution.

It sounds like you reacted well to a bad situation. You're alive and you learned a valuable lesson. Never forget it.
 
Well an update of sorts for anybody interested. The car was recovered late Friday or early Saturday, crashed and subjects in custody. I received a call from the investigator today and the car is being held as evidence in an attempted murder case. I was told they would be cutting up the interior fabrics for evidence collection. I have no other information beyond that. The investigator said he wants to meet with me to discuss the events that occurred when the car was stolen. Can anybody in the know tell me why they would need to cut up the inside of the car? Not that it really matters at this point, but I would think they could gather DNA type evidence without having to cut the interior up. Drugs maybe?
 
Well I have no idea why they would destroy the inside of the car. Thanks for posting I think more of us are guilty of leaving it running while we take care of something else real quick. Last, find out if the court/PD is going to reimburse you for the interior damage, plus remember cars can be repaired or replaced. Your breathing and unharmed and have given all of us a wake up call. Keep us up to date.
 
It's Denver, not Detroit.
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Denver is better than Detroit, statisically, however, have you ever been to Commerce City or parts of Aurora? They are Denver suburbs and very high crime. Thornton is not that far from either and also relatively close to inner city Denver.

There are a lot of illegals in the Denver area also, many looking for a quick $$$ to make ends meet. My next door neighbor's house was invaded at night while he and his wife were sleeping, and that was in Lone Tree in an "nice" neighborhood.
 
I'm sincerely glad that everything worked out fine and you're able to post about this. :)

I still disagree on the point that several have made about the assumption that you would have been robbed even if you had locked your car. We don't know that. Thieves are patient, they will wait in an area for a target of opportunity to present itself. We just don't know what would happen. Whatever the case, I like to stick with best practices for me. Even if leaving the car running worked out for you in this case (and I'm not convinced it did), I don't think that means that the best practice in the future is to leave the car running and open in case an armed thief approaches.

You're alive, that's what is important.

I'm not trying to Monday morning quarterback this...I'm just saying that we should view this as an example that even when we think we are safe, the opportunity for bad things to happen is still there. In a gated community, no less!

We don't have to walk around paranoid, but there are several small things we can all do to increase our situational awareness. Locking our vehicles, not unlocking our doors until we can see our doors, swinging wide around blind corners, walking in the center of parking lot aisles (when it won't get us run over, of course) and lots of other little things contribute to our situational awareness without becoming an inconvenience.

Or maybe it is just me and I'm paranoid. Maybe my paranoia has become my daily routine and I've gotten accustomed to it since I interact daily in an area that has lots of questionable foot traffic (due to my job). Maybe working around court systems and jails for contract jobs in the past has made me distrustful of people in general and I'm overly cautious.

Anyway...my main point is that I'm glad you're ok so we can have this discussion, and that one thing we can all agree on is that this is an example that we our safety is never guaranteed anywhere no matter how safe we may feel so situational awareness is key.
 
DammitBoy said:
The point is - he shouldn't have been there in the first place.
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Sometimes that's when you can check your mail....

The way to deal with this situation is to take the keys/lock the car. If someone is approaching your car when you walk to it, leave the car and go to a safe place..... Keep distance between you and the potential bg. Fill in the blanks for your particular incident.

Now, if you are 5 miles from your appartment and have no close safe place to go...... well good luck. I hope you are armed.
 
Wow. I doubt you're getting your car back. If they mentioned a drug charge, they're going to cut up the upholstery to see if he hid drugs in the car and hold it for years until they finish up their "investigation".

You're lucky here, the guy tried to run over another human being with a car. I think we've answered the question if this was a thief with a "conscience". Glad you didn't test him, he's certainly willing to murder people.
 
now, look at the good news. A bg, armed, in a good neighborhood. Maybe your slight error of leaving the car running was a blessing! If he hadn't taken the easy route with your truck, what other mischief could he have gotten into in your neighborhood? Murder, rape, home invasion? He wasn't there to sell Avon.

thanx for the heads up, we all need reminders about little bad habits like leaving the car running. I do it every day, when I pull up to unlock the gate! Now I do it a little more carefully and scan the area better, which isn't hard because we have the only house on our block.
 
He was there on a mission. I doubt leaving the car running was any serious factor after you became an item of interest. Also not much you could have done, realistically. Even if you had a firearm, you would have only had two choices:

1) Pull it in deterrent before he did his. Given that he was armed, you could have instigated a firefight, maybe not.

2) Pull after he started to get in your car while he is potentially busy. He now has cover and you not. Likewise, your car is also a potential weapon. Timing your draw would be tricky and you have a better idea of what actually happened, but I'm betting his attention was more focused on his new acquisition, not keeping you targeted as he got in the car.

Either way, neither is exactly the best position to be in, though it sounded like you had a good idea what was about to happen before he pulled his gun. That gives you options concerning your own firearm, but it's tough to be disappointed with the actual outcome: You're alive.
 
I am still amazed people are saying he shouldn't be checking his mail at 11pm. Really? People live different lives, work different hours, and aren't always afforded the luxury of being able to check their mail at noon when the local patrol car is passing by them. Furthermore, the same people saying he shouldn't be checking mail at this time because crime might happen more, are also saying that crime can happen anywhere. Yep, it can, and at ANY TIME. Realistically, there is only so much you can do to avoid being in a less then ideal situation, location, at a less then ideal time. I live in the real world.

So why not change the scenario a bit. Instead of the OP leaving his car running to go check his mail, he is pulling up to park at his apartment. As he pulls up to park, the same man approaches. Taps on his window with this handgun, and car jacks him. Would you be saying the same thing, that it was his fault for arriving home at 11 at night. Golly gee, who in their right mind would ever want to be outside in this crime filled world we live in as so late as 11pm!?!

Whether he was armed, or unarmed would not have changed the scenario for the better either. He was not hurt, he only had his car stolen. If he was armed, it would have only made the situation worse, and potentially deadly. So that I think is actually irrelevant to this particular scenario. Had the situation been a bit different, it might have mattered.
 
It's not a rape victim's fault if she's attacked. It's not the car-jacking victim's fault if he gets his car stolen.

In a perfect world any lady should be able to walk down any alley at any time wearing only her underwear. But even in a perfect world it would be a bad idea.

The OP should be able to walk away from his car with the engine running, but it's still a bad idea.

I do it all the time, especially in hot weather. It's a bad idea. One day I'm going to walk out of the post office and find nothing in my parking spot but a rapidly drying puddle of air conditioning condensate. That's when I'll remember this thread and slap my forehead saying, "That was a bad idea!"
 
Lee Lapin said:
Now I live in a "safe" part of town

Even Paradise had a serpent...

lpl
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That might actually be a convincing argument for some people I know who are against carrying, or think they only need to lock the knob and not the deadbolt when they leave the house. I'll have to remember that one.

OP - sorry about your experience but glad you weren't hurt.
 
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