J
Jeff, CA
Guest
The "gun in every room" thread reminded me of a story I saw some years back on "Unsolved Mysteries". I occasionally replay it mentally and think about what the victims might have done differently.
There was a guy who happened to be the president or manager of a bank. He was selling a car at the time, and he had an ad in the local paper. Two or three guys came to his house under pretense of looking at the car (this tells me they had been looking for an opening). They made an offer and settled on a price, then suggested they go inside to do the paperwork. Once inside, they drew guns and took over. They held the banker and his family all night, and went with him to the bank in the morning. As the tellers arrived, they herded them into the vault, then took the money and vanished.
The robbers made sure the family stayed in the living room and on the couch the entire night; they also "tested" the banker at one point by leaving one of their guns (unloaded) on the living room floor, and going into the kitchen. The banker could do nothing except tell the family to stay put.
What's your analysis of this situation? Where did he go wrong? What might he have done to prevent/stop this?
Hidden guns are fine, but I think his first mistake was in not recognizing himself as a likely target. If he had done so, he could have taken the simple precautions of having the wife armed and watching from inside, politely insisting on having the guys wait outside while he brought the papers outside (I've done car paperwork on the seller's front porch - no problem). Only if these first layers failed would hidden guns have been necessary.
What would you have done? Have you considered the possibility of someone casing you?
There was a guy who happened to be the president or manager of a bank. He was selling a car at the time, and he had an ad in the local paper. Two or three guys came to his house under pretense of looking at the car (this tells me they had been looking for an opening). They made an offer and settled on a price, then suggested they go inside to do the paperwork. Once inside, they drew guns and took over. They held the banker and his family all night, and went with him to the bank in the morning. As the tellers arrived, they herded them into the vault, then took the money and vanished.
The robbers made sure the family stayed in the living room and on the couch the entire night; they also "tested" the banker at one point by leaving one of their guns (unloaded) on the living room floor, and going into the kitchen. The banker could do nothing except tell the family to stay put.
What's your analysis of this situation? Where did he go wrong? What might he have done to prevent/stop this?
Hidden guns are fine, but I think his first mistake was in not recognizing himself as a likely target. If he had done so, he could have taken the simple precautions of having the wife armed and watching from inside, politely insisting on having the guys wait outside while he brought the papers outside (I've done car paperwork on the seller's front porch - no problem). Only if these first layers failed would hidden guns have been necessary.
What would you have done? Have you considered the possibility of someone casing you?
