thot we had a home invasion Tuesday am.....

[WAGCEVP]

hubby and I were awaken @ 300 am Tuesday to what we thot was a home invasion. our Jack Russell Terrior Alarm went off , my husband got up and looked out the window but didn't see anything or anyone, so he came back to bed . Afew seconds later the doorbell started going crazy --- ding ding ding ding ding..... we looked at the clock , it was 300 am..... the first that went thru our head was oh , home invasion.... Hubby grabbed the shotgun and went to the door. thru a closed door, he shouted "who's there?, A voice from the other side replied: I need you to call the police, someone stole my son's car and ran it into a house down the street from you (three doors down on the opposite side of the street) . Hubby came back into the bedroom and called the police - told the police that there was a man outside our door , we didn't know who he was and were afraid to open the door. (not a total lie
went back with shotgun in hand and open the door.... turns out the guy was legit. Someone had stolen his son's car (they live over in the Northlake lake area) and it (the car)
was in the house up the street. He had chased him (in his pj's) for over an hour and our neighbor hood is where he ended up.

point of the story is that even after telling the cops it was a possible home invasion ,it took the cops over 2o minutes to get there and they passed the house once.......had that been a true home invasion , what woulda happened next woulda depended on whether the homeowner had a SD weapon or not.... and they want to take mine away or have me keep it locked up? I DON'T think so! In twenty minutes someone could be dead! or worse!

 

[jobu07]

classic example of slow response time vs HD weapon

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Glad it turned out OK. Hope you had spare undies?

2 days ago a guy at work had a lady close enough to his door she could have knocked on it shot 3 times. He came to me the next day and asked what he should get for home defense. I reccomended a good pump shottie and a lot of range time with a good instructor.

Up until this point his wife said no guns in the apartment period, not anymore.

When is the general public going to realize they have a better chance at winning the lottery than having a cop right where they need them, when they need them?

 

[DMK]

If it was a home invasion, 2 minutes would have been too late. It's a good thing you guys took care of yourselves.

I don't know where the general public's expectation comes from that the Police will come running with sirens blaring everytime somebody calls 911 in the middle of the night. I'm sure most calls turn out to be no big emergency.

Glad it all worked out OK.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Well, you and hubby were well prepared thanks to Mr. Nipper (if that's your dog's name). Didn't wake and stay in "white" and instead you guys were ready to repel boarders (and in-laws and drop-in-relatives from out of town ).

 

[Jeff White]

You are on your own in a home invasion, I don't care what the response time is. We can be at any address in the small town I work in within three minutes. But it dion't help one family.

Several years ago we had a home invasion robbery while I was on duty. We had three officers in three cars on the street at the time. The first was on the scene within 90 seconds of the 911 call being dispatched, all three of us were there within three minutes. None of us came across the suspect vehicle leaving the neighborhood even though we came from different directions to try to catch them leaving.

The victims were an older couple who ran a business from their home. A large amount of cash was taken. We always suspected it was an inside job by a relative, but were never able to prove anything. The male victim was pistol whipped when they came through the door, but fortunately was not seriously injured. The female victim ran to another room and dialed 911. The bad guys knew where the cash was and were confident they could have been in and out before we could get there and they were right.

Everyone needs to take responsibilty for their own safety. As fast as we were at the scene, it was too late to do anything but take a report. It was a big relief that no one was seriously injured, but both victims could just have easily been killed.

Jeff

 

[tcsd1236]

I don't know where the general public's expectation comes from that the Police will come running with sirens blaring everytime somebody calls 911 in the middle of the night. I'm sure most calls turn out to be no big emergency.

That depends on the type of call...for something of this sort, YES, we would be coming with the light and noise show.

For the person complaining that the officers drove by, how is your house marked? 3M scotchlite numbers (BIG) on both sides of the box? Clearly marking your house from the neighbors? If not, don't blame the officers for being unable to quickly find your home.

"Slow response"? Rephrase that, please. For all you know, its simply a "lengthly" response. "Slow" makes it sound as if the officers took their time, and we don't know that. It can take me half an hour at warp speed to get to calls, and I only patrol a quarter to a half of the county, depending on staffing levels.

 

[PATH]

Well I am glad everything worked out in the end! Folks, arm and defend yourselves! The law may not get there in time!

 

[Stand_Watie]

"Call for a cop, call for a pizza, see who shows up first"

As tcsd pointed out, this isn't neccessarily the fault of your local PD. I live a good 15 minutes drive from the county sherrifs and still expect (and so far have recieved) a quicker response than when I lived in town. A door can be battered down in 10 seconds, there isn't a police department anywhere that can make that time.

The armed homeowner is the single best defense. An armed neighbor is a great backup. Having a quickly responding PD is a nice secondary backup.

Now have you considered that it's also your job to backup your police department? If you were driving by a trooper or a sherrif on the roadside tussling with a bad guy, I hope you'd stop and offer assistance, whether that would be screaming "officer needs assistance" followed by your location into a radio mike or holding a gun on the BG while the police officers put the cuffs on.

I have heard that in places like Alaska where other police assistance might be an hour away that police officers are even more happy to receive non-law enforcement assistance in dealing with BG's.

 

[Standing Wolf]

You did well. I'm glad the episode wasn't worse than it was. Too bad your story won't make newspaper front pages from coast to coast, because I think a great many Americans could learn some lessons from it.

 

[kd7ctv]

I would never just jump in and assist an officer that was tussling with a BG, because the officer doesn't know you from adam, and might think you are there to aid the BG, this isn't saying I haven't helped officers before, I have actually help quite a few. What I do and I get thanks for this is approach from an area where he can see me if I can and announce who I am and ask if he needs assistance, I have yet to be turned down, but it lets him know that I am willing to get involved without having to worry that I am there to help the BG. I even do this at accidents where there are multiple victems, again I haven't been turned down. I look at it as letting them know that I am there to assist them if needed, if they say NO thanks I go on my merry way, but as I said I haven't been turned down once.