Possible home invasion atempt...

Z

ZO6Vettever

Inactive
Last evening about 6PM I got a call from someone who could hardly speak English who wanted to see my house (for sale by owner). We set it up for 6PM the next evening. He calls back about 6:15 and says he will be there in 20 minutes and I say OK. My wife says she don't like it and tells me I should arm myself. Something just seemed creepy so I do and we wait until 6:45 and I call him. I ask where is he and he stutters and stammers and says he is here. I'm at my front door and tell him he isn't here he stalls with jib jab talk in Spanish and after about a minute of not letting me get a word in I say are you alone. More stalling and he says yeah but I here other voices so I ask him if he is bulletproof. He stalls again and says what you mean. I told him if he isn't alone don't come and if he ain't bulletproof don't come or he would leave full of holes if I see gang bangers. (I got that line from someone else on this forum) He tells me he'll call back and hangs up. Immidietly called 911, told the dispatcher what happened and that I was legally armed but did not want to shoot anyone so please get the Sherrif here ASAP. Two units show up about 25 minutes later. I held my hands in the air with CCW in hand, said I was the homeowner and legally armed. I offered to surrender my weapon. Female officer asked where it was and removed it from the IWB holster. She asked would I mind if she cleared it for their safety. I said sure, full mag + 1 in the pipe. She took the report while the other LEO ran my CCW and gun serial number. They were very professional and all went very smooth. They returned my gun and ammo and said reload whenever I want. The guy never showed, I left more lights than usual on and the pistol on not in the night table. I don't think I overeacted and it seems the cell phone is stolen. Any updates I'll keep y'all posted.
 
On the face, it did seem suspicious. Or perhaps it was simply someone who didn't have a good command of the English language.
More stalling and he says yeah but I here other voices so I ask him if he is bulletproof. He stalls again and says what you mean. I told him if he isn't alone don't come and if he ain't bulletproof don't come or he would leave full of holes if I see gang bangers.
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You got lucky. There's not really a belief you were in immediate danger of life or bodily injury from just that phone conversation. Remember, the BG has to have ability, opportunity, and intent. You communicated a menacing threat and possibly committed an assault. You could be explaining yourself to a judge in court instead of to a LEO on your front lawn.
 
You communicated a menacing threat and possibly committed an assault. You could be explaining yourself to a judge in court instead of to a LEO on your front lawn.
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That depends on the particular jurisdiction. In many places, "if you come with gangbangers, you'll leave with pallbearers" doesn't qualify.
 
It sounds to me like you really jumped to some conclusions there. I can't figure out what made you think of a home invasion.

If I were going to invade a house, I'd probably choose one that likely still had all the valuables in it, rather than one that might be mostly empty.
 
Smaug said:
If I were going to invade a house, I'd probably choose one that likely still had all the valuables in it, rather than one that might be mostly empty.
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My concern here is the possibility of armed robbery, considering the possible perps knew he was going to be there alone.
My guess is that they "could" have assumed the OP has a fat wallet based on the type and location of the house. I'm basing these thoughts on the OP's user name, Z06Vettever, which indicates to me he has a Z06 Corvette, which is not an inexpensive car. :cool:
-Bruce
 
We just had a case near Milwaukee where a guy went to look at a car for sale from an individual. During the test drive he pulls a gun, ties up the car owner & later kills him. The perp later killed himself as the cops closed in. His girlfriend is up on charges now for involvement. You just never know.
 
Other than telling the guy you'd shoot him if he showed up with anybody else, I don't think you did anything wrong. The whole thing sounds pretty suspicious to me.

Maybe I'm not the one to ask, though. My wife says I have a strong tendency to overeact!!
 
He could also have been planning on casing your home to find out what valuables were there. He might see something he likes and later when no one is home, he breaks in and steals you blind. Glad it worked out. By calling the Sheriff's office they will be keeping an eye out for this situation. Stay safe.
 
There's been a trend in my city in the last few months, of crooks burglarizing homes during an "Open House", even though the homeowners are there. I would bet that is what probably might have occurred in the original poster's case.
 
I wasn't here alone, my wife and I live in the house and it wasn't a "communication problem" 2 years of Spanish and Manager of a hotel 9 years with Latino staff my "Spanglish" is damn good. Grant it I should not have threatened them but I just flat out didn't want them to show up. I was suspicious because of his inconsistantcies and out and out lie that he was alone. There also was recently an unsolved home invasion here. It turns out the cell phone he called on was stolen leading me to further believe my instincts were justified. Thanks for the comments and I'll try not to make threats in the unlikely event anything like this should ever happen again.
 
Everytime I read a story like this I am so glad that I live way out in the country. Sometimes you just know when something isn't right. I have seen latinos that when they discover you can speak spanish suddenly cannot speak anything just as ZO6 said. I think he did just fine.
 
Having just returned from LFI I'm going to make some comments based on my class but I may ask Mas for some advice.
First, you are the the protector of the innocent in your home. That is your first concern and out ranks any other consideration.
With that you can use your firearm when their is the immediate and unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to an innocent person. There are indeed three criteria to this.
1. Ability of the BG to do it.
2. Opportunity to do it, in this case showing up with help or arms.
3. Jeopardy, a person who shows in any way the actions including speech of physical intimidation that they will commit the act.
In your case all three criteria were there, the answers on the phone show that Jeopardy was very possible and that they subsequently didn't show up alone or a smiling kindly wife, children, puppy in tow shows me that you avoided a disaster.
 
i think it was a very shaky situation. that being sadi however, i would have threatened the guy over the phone. simply arm yourself, tell him you have to cancel the appointment to show the house and hang up the phone. if he shows up and tried to get in, then its a different story and if push comes to shove, he cant tell the cops you threatened him before shooting him.
 
Gotta go with your gut, and if it feels wierd, you're wise to take care. I don't know about threatening to ventilate the guy, but I'da sure asked who's coming and limited to him & his wife or whatever, and prepared accordingly. The shaky timing and excuses would have set my 'spidey-sense' off, too.

Selling a house is a tedious process, even with realtors, you don't know who is comming in you house, etc. Open houses really suck if there's a bunch of people comming thru, the agents can't watch everyone. My neighbor had a bunch of little stuff stolen (iPod, knick-knacks, etc) during an open house during an open house (in a 'nicer' neighborhood in Falls Church, VA). We insisted that the realtors selling our house not let more people in than they could walk thru personally at any one time (this was a couple years ago when the mkt was hot-), and we had already secured anything that could easily 'walk-off'.
 
As has been said, I agree that "spidey senses" should never be ignored. But your tough talk when there was no direct threat was IMO borderline communicating a threat. You should have told him that the house was no longer available for showing...and then called the police. You definitely overreacted.
 
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