Home Invasion/Robbery in Philly

[Bartholomew Roberts]

The following video shows the beginning of the robbery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuUNyIVX8Pg&feature=youtu.be

The victim in this case was initially assaulted as he pulled into his driveway. He had turned off the car and exited the vehicle when they appear. He and his wife were forced inside the house where he was robbed of a handgun (unclear whether he was carrying it at the time or had it inside the house) and $30,000 in cash. The victim had set up a camera in his driveway, so the initial takedown was caught on camera and is what is shown on the youtube video above.

As you can see, his 6-7 attackers used cover very well to approach him, he had maybe a second or two to make his fight or flight decision and based on the video, it looks like he froze long enough that the decision was made for him. With that many attackers and that little time to react, he really didn't have a lot of options, though the attackers did approach single file which might have helped had he chose to fight.

Given the recent discussions about home invasion and the potential for criminals to use the entering or exit of your home as a chance to target you, I thought this would be a good example for a discussion of how we might avoid similar situations and what we can do to increase the difficulty of such an attack.

One of the obvious suggestions is it seems likely these guys knew they had a high value target, so somewhere along the line, information security was not as good as it might have been and word of a valuable target got out to the wrong people. Another useful item would have been a remote garage door opener and being able to park the car in the garage. While it isn't foolproof, it would have required his attackers to loiter much closer to the house and possibly give him a chance to spot them first or to avoid them entirely by being inside the house by the time the car was shut off.

 

[xXxplosive]

IMO...............at least PA has LTCF laws and the people there can protect themselves from such incidents.....although 7 BG's is a small army.
Here in NJ we have no recourse in such matters....truly a criminal's haven...IMO.
In just the last week I read where we had 3 armed robberies around the area I live in....unless your luck is bad and run into an off duty LEO....no one here is armed.

 

[heeler]

30 Grand!!!
This guy must have been a business owner that carries cash home.
Unfortunately I will have to watch the video at home as Youtube is blocked here.
Home invasion robberies are a weekly occurence here in Houston.
Several of these have been commited after the driver enters the garage after opening it with the remote as the driver is now basically pinned down inside the vehicle with no where else to go.

You have my sympathy xXxplosive.
That just aint right.

 

[Pilot]

Yes, this Asian couple owns a West Philly beer distributor which is a HUGE cash business. For some reason, probably cultural, they kept a lot of cash around. The perps knew this, and I guarantee knew this couple, and their habits well. The male store owner was legally carrying a gun, but against an army of seven, that was of no help.

They need to move out of that city, and the last article I saw indicated they were moving. They are lucky to be alive.

 

[mbt2001]

The male store owner was legally carrying a gun, but against an army of seven, that was of no help.

I do not want to turn this into a macho thread and start a flame war, but I disagree with that statement. In my opinion, situational awareness leads to two logical outcomes 1) escape; 2) engagement. The point is that criminals move from chaos to order, said differently, from an area of less control to one of more control. Witness how they slowly surrounded the target and then moved him inside the house. In the first few seconds of the event, there was a better chance of resisting as there was less effective control by the perps.

The overarching point, is that if you are carrying, in a situation like this, resisting immediately would have broken up the attack. These situations can and do result in being killed and frankly I do not see the difference in being shot in my driveway versus being shot in tied up in my living room. Of course in the OP video the home owner was not aware of his surroundings or the actors nearby, but that is why we preach it so often here on THR.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaBMV2BfwBc

Again, in the beginning, violent resistance might have broken up the attack. Perps are not immune to principles of warfare; in this case you thwart their formation through speed and surprise. Time is on the homeowners side, so if they can disrupt the enemy formation/plan then they have done a lot to thwart the attack.

EDIT:

This video is a horrifying example of what can happen and how often our plans or mental picture of an event has ZERO to do with reality.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I'd agree that had the homeowner started shooting the moment he saw the first attacker, he might have broken up the attack, though with a high probability of getting shot. However, in order to do that, he would have to be able to spot the attackers at a much greater distance, which even the camera - which was looking in the direction the attackers came from and had a better vantage point was unable to do.

Barring that, he would have had to go from "Let's unload the car, honey" to "Fight's on" in about 0.25 seconds in order to have much hope of stopping the attack early. That is a very tall order, even for someone with a great deal of quality training. If this guy was your average CHL who gets his license and goes to the range once a month, he stands about zero chance of pulling that off.

In this case, that tiny moment where the brain goes "O, hell! I am really getting robbed!" stole all the time he had to make that decision.

 

[mbt2001]

I'd agree that had the homeowner started shooting the moment he saw the first attacker, he might have broken up the attack, though with a high probability of getting shot. However, in order to do that, he would have to be able to spot the attackers at a much greater distance, which even the camera - which was looking in the direction the attackers came from and had a better vantage point was unable to do.

Barring that, he would have had to go from "Let's unload the car, honey" to "Fight's on" in about 0.25 seconds in order to have much hope of stopping the attack early. That is a very tall order, even for someone with a great deal of quality training. If this guy was your average CHL who gets his license and goes to the range once a month, he stands about zero chance of pulling that off.

In this case, that tiny moment where the brain goes "O, hell! I am really getting robbed!" stole all the time he had to make that decision.

No question... My point was something to keep in mind for the folks here. Ostensibly, we are people with training, mindset, and other "software". Waiting, as the video shows, put the criminals more and more in control. While I would not want to get shot, I would rather get shot early on than be at the mercy of the criminals and increasingly likely to get hurt if he resisted.

Basically, I am saying what we trumpet, situational awareness... the victim here had none.

 

[heeler]

Now that I have gotten to see the video it's obvious since he was home and operating in his comfort zone he put away his awareness.
He should have seen the first guy coming.
If I was carrying around that kind of money I know I would be right on the ball.
Had he been paying attention and carrying a gun I think he had a very good chance of breaking this up.

 

[sidheshooter]

Good video, from an educational perspective. Thanks for the post.

That is a tough situation. I'd say that the "perfect world" take away is:

#1) situational awareness, as a habit.

#2) a pre-made decision about how to react in similar situations. This guy had no time for even a short debate with himself.

#3) the gun is not a talisman that provides protection; it's just a tool used to extend the will of the user. An explosive response with a heavy stick to #1 would have have likely done more to stave off the crime than his legally concealed handgun.

I'm no huge Cooper devotee, but really, credit where due: this vid clip is a pretty good vindication of the entire book "principles of personal defense". All the solutions are in that little book, but it would have required perfect adherence to same for this guy to have beaten those odds.

JMO.

 

[Fred Fuller]

On a thread not long ago, I suggested to the OP that one thing he should do to help secure his home was to be careful not to provide his prospective burglar with tools, like ladders, prybars, sledgehammers etc., unsecured in his garage or elsewhere on his property.

This homeowner seems to have provided his assailants with an important tool or two. Cover, for one. Access, for another. And apparently, predictability or pattern-setting as much as anything else.

And I'd do my very best to encourage my wife to develop her own skills in the area of self defense as far as possible, if I needed to do so. Six against two is better odds for the two, than six against one plus a surprised helpless bystander. There are opportunities out there for husbands and wives to train in team tactics, so they can better support and defend each other.

This couple was lucky to get out of the situation with only the loss of property.

 

[heeler]

Another thing I found somewhat bizarre about this robbery was it was broad daylight and most of the perps were out in about with masks and those damn hoodies,they spent a reasonable amount of time outside dealing with the victims, and NOBODY ever drove by or just happened to walk outside or down the sidewalk in a city.

 

[bluethunder1962]

Man. Those kind of people you shoot one all the others will run like crazy. But they willl be firing wildly. Thanks for the post.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Once again, like Fred said, patterns
Also, too many forget that a car is a weapon

When you are in your car, to quote my 1st Sergeant in the middle of an ambush, "shut up and drive" They were that close, He could have smeared 4? of them between backing up at a sharp angle and HITTING the other car with them between them, then there are 2? left that MAY shoot at you, and then you have the choice, do you put it in drive and render that threat neutral or continue in reverse to seek cover/ EE, with their inherent chances of being shot.

 

[bluethunder1962]

If I carried that kind of money home I would have the gun in my hand when I got out of the car.

 

[bluethunder1962]

Shadow that is why I drve suv's and trucks only. It is my first weapon. I want it to be a big one.

 

[Resist Evil]

In my small experience, when you point a gun at someone and there's enough light to see it, the person at whom it is pointed does not see you. They see only the hole at the end of the gun. They also go partially deaf. I am also convinced there is an "OMG, is this really happening?" moment that accompanies the momentary paralysis which ensues before you begin to get compliance.

Right away, once the BG appears on tape, he is pointing a gun at the victim. The victim would have to be very aware and very fast to confront a drawn gun already pointed at him, once he was able to get past his initial likely reactions.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

They were that close, He could have smeared 4? of them between backing up at a sharp angle and HITTING the other car with them between them, then there are 2? left

He had turned off and exited the vehicle maybe 10 seconds before the first attacker was even visible, so probably not a successful strategy in his scenario.

 

[EvilGenius]

Yeah. I cant say for sure how many people can beat the #1 man to the punch, let alone survive a possible rush by the others.

However when a criminal(s) move you to a second location (inside the house) your chances of survival go down exponentially.

Tough situation. Probably the most effective thing he could've done was handle his money more carefully in the first place.

 

[Jaymo]

Looks like his employees gave themselves a huge bonus.

 

[mbt2001]

+1 regarding predictability and patterns.

 

[gallo]

Makes my blood boil. They kept coming like cockroaches out of a wall hole. Anyway back to THR.

As an arm chair commando, IMHO, the victim had about 3 seconds to get between the two cars and open up on the first bad guy. I doubt all 7 were packing and if he had fired on the first one I bet the other would have run away. Also, between the two cars he had a very defensible position because all he had to do was keep them from coming out of the alley and into his drive way. At the first gun shots, neighbors would have started calling the police, and the clock would've started running against the criminals.

Every time I watch a video like this one, it flushes out of my head the reoccurring idea to carry a snub.

 

[jawman]

The video link won't load for me, it says it's a bad url. Can you please repaste the link directly from the address bar and not by using the share option below the video?

 

[demerp]

The video link won't load for me, it says it's a bad url. Can you please repaste the link directly from the address bar and not by using the share option below the video?

just clicked on & watched it multiple times, at 3:30AM. link is still active.
terrible scenario to have to confront.

i have had the possible beginnings of a similar situation happen to me, which i won't soon forget, though it was many years ago.

as a teenager driving home one night from picking up pizza for my family, i was unknowingly followed by another car, which pulled in behind me in my driveway, w/ the lights off. was talking to a family member, & not paying attention to my surroundings.

looked up in the rearview mirror, & saw the old sedan, lights off behind me, boxing me in from behind. i started honking the horn, which thankfully brought the house lights on, & multiple family members came out.

the car backed away at high speed, & fled, never to be seen again. my house is the first on the block, facing a main road. making a turn from the main road, you can basically just pull into my driveway (if you live in my house), instead of going around the block (if you live in another house). the other car had just slipped in behind me directly from the main road.

obviously, the situation could have been much worse than it turned out to be, as perhaps my honking would have only served to open up the house to more determined attackers. i often wargame that situation in my head, in terms of other family members coming/leaving home. moreover, when someone else makes the turn into my block behind me, i now go around the block/neighborhood, whether it be day or night. the memory also serves to inform the location of my next homestead, in security terms.

i no longer am so cavalier about coming/going from my driveway/front door, or getting in/out of my car. home base doesn't necessarily mean safety, except in kids' games.

 

[1911Tuner]

No matter where you are...no matter how secure you perceive yourself to be...be mentally prepared to do unbridled violence at a second's notice.

 

[ChCx2744]

As others have stated, if I carried cash even remotely close to that on me or knew that it was in my home, I would be on full orange/red alert when coming and going from my home. From the time he exited his car and walked around behind his trunk, he exhibited absolutely no situation awareness at all!

I was going to explain how I get into my home from my car to the front door, but decided against it...

*Long story* short, I'm pretty much from yellow to orange during that short period of time. Same goes with when I'm leaving. Hell, if my neighbors didn't see me coming and going so often, they'd think I was a perp that somehow got a key and was burglarizing the place.