February 22, 2008Nick Coleman did
a follow-up story on November's Lowry Hill home invasion in which he quotes the victim, Mike, extensively. There are a number of interesting lessons to be learned:
Someone called 911 on Nov. 3 to report three men walking on the street in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis. They were "casing" houses, the caller told police at 9:10 p.m. Twenty minutes later, a police squad was sent to investigate.
It was too late.
By that time, the three men were burglarizing a nearby home, climbing on patio furniture to get in through a small window that had been opened to air out the kitchen after dinner. Grabbing butcher knives off a counter, the masked robbers burst into a nearby room, surprising the homeowner, who was playing the piano.
Some of you may have heard the saying, "when seconds count, the police are minutes away." Notice that police were called 20 minutes before they were able to arrive, Apparently the crime was over at that point. To be fair, they weren't called to an imminent or in-progress emergency, but rather just suspicious activity. It's still valid for all of us to ponder how long it might take police to arrive when things start going badly.
A natural way to deal with this uncertainty is to develop layered security, beyond what is provided by attentive neighbors or neighborhood watch programs. This
might involve:
- whenever possible, lock all doors and windows
- remain more alert despite being in your sanctuary
- establish aids in maintaining alertness so you can let your guard down a little, for instance
- installing an alarm system* and using it
- pets that bark at stuff outside
- etc
- dare I say, possibly arming yourself with tools that you can deploy in an instant if you are caught off guard
Let's show where these things
may have helped Mike (the home owner) weather the situation better. I say "may have" because, of course, there are no guarantees in life. But I prefer that each of us goes out of his way to maintain a fighting chance, rather than to prematurely concede defeat in blissful denial. And while it's easy to pick apart a scenario after the fact, I'm not trying to put the blame on Mike, but rather just identify "opportunities for improvement."
First, the invaders gained access to the house through the kitchen window, which was left open to air it out. In an older house, I suppose they didn't have a hood or other means to air out the kitchen. It's be unreasonable to say Mike should have dealt with the stink and kept the window shut. But perhaps the window could have been blocked to only open part way since it was accessible to the ground level.
The home owner was clearly not alert to threats from the outside. I can't say I blame him; he was playing his piano, enjoying himself, in his home no less. Unfortunately, when you want to do this, you must rely on other things to provide alertness.
I understand why many people won't consider a dog for this purpose. They're certainly a lot of upkeep. You can't just install one and pay a monthly fee to use it. Not to mention that some dogs just aren't that reliable. They might be inattentive, ambivalent, or for that matter not interested in doing anything other than hiding when the SHTF as is evidenced by
this case. I'm not discounting dogs, I'm just pointing out that they are not über-reliable, emotionless automatons.
But the home owners did have a security system...that they rarely used. My guess is that most people who have a security system don't arm it when they're home unless it's bed time. I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to deal with the inconvenience. But had Mike's system been armed, it might have bought him a few moments to do something other than be caught flat footed.
What if you have taken all these precautions to notify you that something is wrong, yet bad guys are still entering the house or the room you're in? What then? Besides calling 911 and praying, conventional, public-official wisdom suggests compliance. That will
possibly get you through your confrontation. Yet, Mike admits that, even after giving up his hunting guns among other things as collateral, he was still convinced that his death was imminent:
"I thought they were going to shoot me," he says. "I was telling them I had kids, and they didn't need to shoot me, but they were tying me up. I thought I was going to die."
Fortunately, they just wanted his stuff. Wow, that was easy to say...in retrospect.
Now Nick Coleman wrote another article earlier in the week titled
Lowry Hill's rash of crime almost had it up in arms (startribune.com membership required to view). In it, he suggests that self-defense and guns are useless. I'll agree that they are no panacea. That doesn't mean they're any less potentially useful and should be excluded from your toolkit. Why, after your other layered defenses have been breached would you just give up, especially if you are in fear of your life?
Of course, maintaining handgun/knife/etc for self defense on your person or in very close proximity while your home (or not) can be inconvenient. Of course, if you don't have any training, don't know how to use them, and/or don't understand the legalities of when to use them, they may be more of a liability to you than a benefit. Of course, if you are not alert, you may simply have no opportunity to use them.
When Mike stated,
"I could have had an Uzi, and it wouldn't have done any good," he says. "I was pounced on."
he ignored the possibility that, had his other defensive layers been better, he might not have been pounced on. Perhaps he would have noticed the invasion as bad guys were assembling and arming up in the kitchen, or even earlier as the window was being breached. This added time very well could have allowed him time to do other things such as retreat or even deploy an Uzi to stop the attackers, his prerogative of course.
Contentious issues aside, I'm glad Coleman wrote this recounting of the Lowry Hill home invasion. Maybe it'll spark a number of readers to reconsider how good their defenses are. Remember:
- Layer your defenses; make your attackers work to get to you and buy yourself more time to react
- Thuggery will never go away. But if you make your house harder to attack than the neighbors, the thugs will move on to your neighbors. If your entire neighborhood makes itself harder to attack than those surrounding yours, crime will largely move to surrounding neighborhoods. If your city ...
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* Remember, when you're at home, a security system is first and foremost a tool to alert you that things are not right and to do something about it. Even though it may summon help, it is not a protective shield.
