Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
KSL in Utah is reporting that a local man shot a home intruder, Apparently, the intruder checked around 20 homes and vehicles in the neighborhood (police found his footprints) and then entered the unlocked back door of the home in question.
After entering, he changed out of his wet clothes and into some of the resident's clothes, made himself a snack, and then went upstairs into the bedroom of the homeowner, threatened him with a gun, and demanded the man and his wife get thier wallet and keys and drive him to an ATM. Instead, the homeowner retrieved his own gun and fatally shot the intruder.
I thought this might be an interesting discussion; because it starts from a worst-case scenario and the type of scenario people often envision in their planning - the bad guy is in the bedroom with you and making threats before you even know there is a problem. Despite starting from WAY behind the curve, the homeowner was able to come out successful.
More importantly, I thought it would offer some opportunities to talk about HOW the homeowner got so far behind the curve and the various steps he could have taken to give himself more time to react. Obviously the first one is to lock the back door; but everyone slips up now and then.
Something like motion activated night lights in the hallways or main rooms might have helped indicate they had a problem while the intruder was busy changing clothes and having a bite to eat. Dogs would be a another great alarm system in this case that would work even with the back door unlocked.
After entering, he changed out of his wet clothes and into some of the resident's clothes, made himself a snack, and then went upstairs into the bedroom of the homeowner, threatened him with a gun, and demanded the man and his wife get thier wallet and keys and drive him to an ATM. Instead, the homeowner retrieved his own gun and fatally shot the intruder.
I thought this might be an interesting discussion; because it starts from a worst-case scenario and the type of scenario people often envision in their planning - the bad guy is in the bedroom with you and making threats before you even know there is a problem. Despite starting from WAY behind the curve, the homeowner was able to come out successful.
More importantly, I thought it would offer some opportunities to talk about HOW the homeowner got so far behind the curve and the various steps he could have taken to give himself more time to react. Obviously the first one is to lock the back door; but everyone slips up now and then.
Something like motion activated night lights in the hallways or main rooms might have helped indicate they had a problem while the intruder was busy changing clothes and having a bite to eat. Dogs would be a another great alarm system in this case that would work even with the back door unlocked.