Look at me - I'm fighting crime!

Woke up this morning after hearing helicopters for a while... Happens, every now and then. So I went downstairs to prepare some coffee and tea for us when I caught a glimpse of something moving in the backyard.

Went to the patio door, opened the blinds a bit and saw one kid sitting on a chair on the deck and another popped up in the glass door saying "Please sir, let me talk to you it's important..."


Though I still had to get that fist sip of coffee and my brain really wasn't processing information as efficiently as it normally would, it was quite obvious that these kids (I say kids, but they must have been around 20) were hiding from that helicopter under our covered patio. And that there were at least 2, maybe more.

Went upstairs and yelled to my wife to call 911 and get dressed while I grabbed my trusty baseball bat and sat in the stairs, where I could see outside the house almost all around and not be seen.

Funnily enough, when the 911 lady asked to talk to me, she told me to put down the bat. Yeah, right, that's exactly what I bought this thing for. To put it down! 

Like Titus says - Everyone has an enemy - that's why God gave us baseball bats. Well, He gave us trees, but we knew what He meant.


Anyway, not knowing if they were armed or not and how many of them there was, I was not going to go after them. I'm a big boy but I'm not stupid. All I wanted was to have the baseball bat handy if they were to try and break in, otherwise I could sit and wait - as long as my wife was safe, I'm ok.

Police and K9 were here a couple of minutes later, the kids had ran away but they had caught 2 of them - one which I could kind of identify from a distance. And they just caught the 3rd one, an hour later.

Turns out they were burglars and had been spotted trying to enter a house in a nearby street. 

What a way to wake up...

Nah, only this guy.   I call it: The Rectifier. ;)

Rain


Nah, only this guy.   I call it: The Rectifier. ;)

 
He he, there's only one thing better than that Krist....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Dual Rectifier
 
 

 
 
 
 
Cool story by the way - you certainly stayed calm and did the right things.
 
 

Sort of reminds me of a certain...ermm....'individual who attempted to get into mah house...I came down the stairs with me trusty machete then...my silhouette was enough to frighten the dude off...right into the hands of an officer of the law....

Craig - that's funny - the patio door is actually right in front of our gym, where I do keep a closet rod for stretching and stuff. It's much longer though.

I'm a big martial arts fan, but I never learned to use weapons (thought I did practice with nunchucks for a while). That being said, when I played baseball as a kid, the bat became a dangerous weapon in my hands as I used to let go of it the minute I hit the ball. Sometimes the bat went further away than the ball. lol

I certainly hope not too. We live in a nice neighborhood and I guess that those kids figured that there was valuable stuff worth stealing in the houses here.

I talked w/ one of the neighbors a bit earlier and she was going around informing the people - she said she'd already made a few phone calls to try and make sure that they didn't get back on the street too soon and said she'd be distributing flyers to make people aware and get them to call in as well.

That being said, I'm seriously considering a dog or two. I already have name for them - Surgery and Vasectomy. :P 
What do you guys think? ;)

Rain


That being said, I'm seriously considering a dog or two. I already have name for them - Surgery and Vasectomy. :P 
What do you guys think? ;)

Calling them could get interesting.

craigb


When I got to the point in my martial arts training where I was allowed to learn a weapon, I chose the "Jahng Bong" which is really just a staff.  I keep a 4' closet rod nearby and few people seem to equate it to a bat though I'm probably more dangerous with it than a bat (except when I'm playing softball of course! ).

A sentence I'm not likely to hear: "Put down that closet rod Sir!" 

unless the perp has a 9mm in which your rod would be pointless, just saying

So that lady I mentioned above printed a notice which she distributed here in the neighbor. 

Apparently, the police officers told her that in most cases, they'd build a case but it wouldn't go any further and that people needed to call the DA and push and try to get them to take action. 

Seems that the kid aren't too worried as 2 of them were apparently giggling and laughing in the back of the police car, so they may be familiar with the system and know that they'll be back on the street in no time.

Which really bugs me - especially for my wife. I won't be able to let her go out in the backyard for a smoke alone anymore, because, who knows if/when those scumbags will show up again.

Glad everything worked out for the best Rain. I'm not surprised at burglars targeting that area.....it's a really nice neighborhood and it seems like it's no big deal for them to get caught..... :(

Dogs & guns are a great idea to have for protection.......I am thinking of getting both as you'll never know what crazy loon(s) will attack your family/home. 

  

By the way...what woke me up out of my sleep was our little Spring...growling....
 

  

The problem with dogs for security is they will not show the reasoned restraint that you did, and would likely throw themselves into the jaws of death to please you. Imagine how you'd feel if Vas or Surg got killed or crippled, or if they lit into the neighbor's kid who was just retrieving a ball.

I'd be more concerned with making sure my doors and locks were adequate. For most would-be burglars, just having the homeowner there is enough of a deterrent. They're far more likely to visit while you're away.

Might I suggest a webcam? Mine is set up so when you come in, either by door or window, it snaps your photo and uploads it to my ftp server. Even if you notice the camera and disable it, it's too late - your picture's already been taken. My business partner's home was burgled while he was out of town. He was pretty sure he knew who did it, but couldn't prove it. That's when I installed my camera and suggested the same for him.

I like the webcam idea! I'm home 99% of the time, but I admit that I'm always a bit worried when we leave for a couple of days. We do have insurances but there's some stuff that you cannot simply replace, like the old favorite guitars.

As for dogs, well, I've wanted to get one for quite a while. I don't think I'd actually let the dog out, but it could still scare thieves away and/or prevent me. 

The reason those kids picked our backyard was probably that the blinds were practically closed, they saw no one inside and figured out that they could stay there for a while. They even had time to re-arange the furniture to sit closer to the wall not to be seen. 

We were sleeping on the second floor, and my wife has this white noise thingie that she needs to sleep - I have a love/hate relation with that device because it drowns out the noises that I would need to hear to keep the place safe. Between that, the AC and the humidifiers, I'm having a tough time scanning for noises.

A dog could have acted as a helper on that one, even from inside the house. I'm thinking that the kids or any thief would have probably run away the minute the dog started making noise.

Yep. 

Worst part is, there's very little you can do with those rotten apples. Sending them to jail will only result in them learning the ropes and becoming even better and more serious criminals. But we can't just let them run, can we...

And they're on mine.