Inspector wrote:
I can only imagine the stress. And you must have thought that that 45 minutes seemed like it was never going to end.
Indeed. God, it felt like forever.
CoRoMo wrote:
My question is this...
Is there something against detaining an intruder/trespasser/violent threat?
I haven't found anything in our code one way or the other. I remembered some discussions here and decided that I would NOT tell him that he was detained, but if he assumed it, that was on him. But he wasn't going to pick up a firearm anywhere near me.
I've read quite a few of the real life scenarios on THR, and yours is by far the most proper, error free, and effective response I recall. Well done.
Thank you my friend. All that I did right, I can credit to this forum. Any that I did wrong was/is all on me.
dcal wrote:
I have a question as to what you did when the cavalry finally arrived. I presume you had the gun, as you said, "pointed at an angle to him" and the trespasser had his hands in the air. At the moment the LEO arrived what did you do with the weapon (e.g. low ready, holster, place on ground)? What was the LEOs reaction to the situation?
Thanks for asking that one. The deputy didn't give it a minute's thought that I had my firearm out. I kept it out until the deputy had the man in handcuffs. At that time, I unchambered the round in my handgun and holstered the weapon.
When he walked up, he did so in a casual manner. And said "Hi, is that him?"
mgkdrgn wrote:
And I'll betcha he didn't have it in French, German, Vietmanese, Russian or Swahili either. Nor are the roadsigns, advertising, or menus.
Lets see, we've got an illegal alien, armed, CC w/o a permit, trespassing, poaching and putting a US Citizen in his sights, and you bitch because the "POSTED" sign isn't in Mexican?
Ahhh, I get it, yer from California, ain't ya?
;-)
I think I sense Joe's sarcasm in his post.
CoRoMo wrote:
I don't suppose you know whether he was bailed out by a bail bond company. They would surely keep tabs on him and would require ID.
I *think* that he was bailed out by the Hispanic people that live in that house. A little after this occured, I saw about 15 people in the yard of that house as I passed to do to my father's (there's a story there as to why I went there.) I suspect that they were getting organized to deal with the situation.
I was prepared if they were organizing for other reasons, but I doubted that was the case.
mgkdrgn wrote:
Did you tell the cops you had somebody at GUNPOINT?
Are you -that- rural that it took them 45 minutes to show up, or was the "hot now" sign at the local Kryspy Creame lit?
Interesting that.
When I called 911, I was very explicit to tell them that I had my handgun drawn to protect myself until they arrived, and that I would do so until the person was in custody. They didn't seem concerned about that.
As for the 45 minutes...
It's hit-or-miss around here because of the topography of this county. The county is split by a major river and only two deputies are on duty for 445 square miles. If they are on one side of the river, there are only two points that it can be crossed-- 40 miles from each other.
The police can literally be a mile away, but if they are on the other side of the river, it will take them 1 hour to get here. When we had a break-in at the end of 2006, the police got here in 18 minutes. We were lucky then.
Here is a couple odd/funny things that happened that night that I failed to mention:
- The Sheriff was out on duty that night and was riding with an off-duty LA State Trooper. All three of us went to school together. They almost responded themselves, but they were too far away. I got a call later that night from the State Trooper and all it said was "I heard you got your @ss kicked by a Mexican!" (You'd have to know the trooper) He razed me quite a bit.
- The deputy that responded decided to bring his Dodge Charger down to my deer plot, and promptly got his car stuck. I went and got my truck to pull him out, when I promptly got my truck HORRIBLY stuck.
- We had to call my father to pull us out with his jeep. It didn't work. Dad had to go get a tractor. This worked.
- When dad came on the tractor to pull us out, he ran over my leather hat. I didn't realize this at the time.
- Later that night, I realized that I forgot my hat. I got my handgun and a light and then proceeded to go get my hat.
- I spooked a small doe in my yard and found it odd that she refused to run into the woods. I kept walking, only to discover what she was waiting for.
- I rounded a tree, and came face-to-face with the small doe's LARGE mother. She was spooked.
- Large doe RAN OVER me, striking me squarely in the chest and knocking me flat on my back. I am still sore.
- Both does were so spooked that they didn't know what to do. They decided that the best course of action was to run circles in my yard around my prone and dazed body.
- I could have made a lot of money if someone had videoed that and sent it in to America's Funniest Home Videos.
All in all, it took over 2 hours from the point that I called until we had the deputy free to leave.
I managed to save my hat, but it bears scars from the experience.
-- John
