# Daytime home entry bastard in my house! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 13, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288 "2008-07-13T01:37:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/21 "2008-07-13T16:05:31Z")
Sorry, friend **Lumpy**. I got robbed last night, too, at work (I was being distracted by a partner while the thief knifed the lock, got away with about $500 in cash from the register). It makes you paranoid for a while, that’s for sure. Still, I like to think of it as “nothing personal.” ETA: the police informed us that we should up visible security (like cameras in the reception). Their main stance in things like this is the old “running from bears” adage. (I.e. you don’t have to outrun the bear, only the other people with you.) ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/22 "2008-07-13T20:02:24Z")
May I ask what side of the city you’re on, **Lumpy**? I grew up in Camden, and despite still loving the area, you couldn’t pay me to live there again. I now reside in Crystal, but the _“quiet”_ side. The ex, when residing here, had his car gone into (dumbass didn’t lock it) and his radio stolen. When my sister owned the house she had a 400lb lawn wishing well stolen from the front yard. It seems in our area the summer times brings majorly bored teenagers. TheKid laughs at how I’m becoming my mother, but we no longer live in the days of doors wide open, keys in car. I will have the front door open - when I’m in the living room. When I leave in the morning and she’s here alone, all doors/windows are closed and locked. Hell, even when I’m home mowing the lawn all doors/windows are closed and locked. I dunno. I work hard for what crap I have, and it’s my crap. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/23 "2008-07-13T20:31:36Z")
[QUOTE=MissTake] May I ask what side of the city you’re on, **Lumpy**? I grew up in Camden, and despite still loving the area, you couldn’t pay me to live there again. [/QUOTE] I’m over by Memorial Parkway, northwest of Penn & Lowry. It usually isn’t as bad as classic “North side”, but we do get a lot of spillover. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/24 "2008-07-13T21:04:37Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] This always makes me wonder why handguns are so popular for home defense. Shotguns are better. You have a lot more rom for error. You can fire in the dark, with shaky hands and you’re probably still going to hit something. [/QUOTE] A general rule of thumb is 1" spread per yard, so at home defense ranges you only have a spread of 5-10". You still need to aim as you would a rifle. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/25 "2008-07-13T21:10:45Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] I’m over by Memorial Parkway, northwest of Penn & Lowry. It usually isn’t as bad as classic “North side”, but we do get a lot of spillover. [/QUOTE] Lumpy, it’s BAD. Don’t kid yourself. The incident I mentioned with the Karate mom was near Washburn and Dowling. As I said, in 1998. I lived by Folwell Park from 1991 to 2002. Not quite your neighborhood, but close. When I moved in, I described it as: 1/3 old original owners, 1/3 blue collar whites, 1/3 blue collar blacks. The 1990 Census said 70% White, 20% Black, 10% other (Hmong, Native Americans, Arabs). By the time I moved out, the neighborhood had gone to shit. The 2000 Census said 70% Black, 20% White, 10% Other. Now that’s not to blame it on “black people”, it’s to point out that at least 50% (and more like 70%) of the homeowners had bailed in ten years. We went from being perhaps 80% Owner-Occupied, to being 70% Rental and at least 10% UNoccupied. I was quite happy to sell at the time, especially because I made a huge pile of dough doing it. Unfortunately, the house is clearly poorly kept up rental property now, with volunteer trees growing all over the yard. Before I moved, I had gang members two houses down in one direction, three houses down in the other, a major drug house across the street and a party house around the corner with almost nightly parties in the middle of the intersection. The 12 year old kid in that drug house was caught wheeling the neighbor’s Harley out of his garage. He ran straight into his house and his mother threatened to shoot the guy for knocking on their door to see her about it. Then the cops blew him off, so they moved out within a month. The little shit vandalized every house and car within range and nothing was ever done about it. But then, I called the special response unit about the drug dealing many times and they never responded either. It was so blatant it was pathetic. I could sit in my living room and see people handling rocks on the front porch. The first weekend of the month was always the worst. People would stop in the middle of the street, leave their cars running with the doors open (blocking the street), run up to the door and buy a rock. The worst part of it was that after getting no response from the cops, I called my city council member. Within a week, my house was vandalized in retribution. Someone was protecting those drug dealing pieces of shit! In retrospect, I should have bought a video camera and sent the tape to the media. That’s also where I had the five break-in attempts while I was home. A friend of mine lived near Oliver & Lowry. He moved out in 2000 after someone was killed next to his garage. Just said “time to go” and got out quick. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/26 "2008-07-13T22:12:06Z")
Too bad you’re not neighbors with Joe Horn in Pasadena, TX - we could be rid of another slime ball… ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/27 "2008-07-13T22:27:31Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] I’m over by Memorial Parkway, northwest of Penn & Lowry. It usually isn’t as bad as classic “North side”, but we do get a lot of spillover. [/QUOTE] We’re neighbors. :goes to make sure back door is locked: ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/28 "2008-07-13T23:46:04Z")
You know, though, even in the northside there are pockets of people trying. SOME of the community groups work. I wholeheartedly agree with Minneapolis dozing down blighted homes. It does, sadly, make some blocks look like a mouth of missing teeth, but it’s a start. Our little church in Camden (46th and Colfax) has been broken into more times than I can count, and people have been murdered or left for dead close by. Many of the elderly white parishoners still live close, and wouldn’t move if you paid them to. But when the parishoners got out into the community, some of the break-ins stopped. When the garage was tagged by the local latino gang, their families cleaned it up (since they also use the church). Heh, I remember when I was a teenager, taking the bus down to Emerson and Broadway, walking all by myself down to Duncan Donuts to see friends, then continuing down Broadway to Thomas to see other friends. A single white girl. Never had a problem. Today, when TheKid wanted to go to Whiz Bang Days with friends - o hell no (FWIW, there is supposed to be some gang retribution crap stemming from the Juneteenth gang crap). You want to trust your neighbors, give them the benefit of the doubt. I hate locking the house up like a friggin fortress. When I was looking at houses I passed on a few over by North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale and over off 52nd/Bryant just because of the neighborhood. Not necessarily due to the etchnic make up, but after calling to find out the crime stats. Hell, my mom lives on the “safe” side of Brooklyn Park, and [that](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=470348) hasn’t been rosy. What are some solutions? ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/29 "2008-07-14T03:03:09Z")
The identical thing happened to a friend of mine, and for that reason I always turn my alarm on when I’m working in the yard. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/30 "2008-07-14T04:59:50Z")
eta- I decided to make this a PM instead. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/31 "2008-07-14T06:40:22Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] This is not a gun thread, this is a home invasion thread. [/quote] The two are irrevocably related. > [@](#): > > The man did not have a gun, so let’s not go into hypotheticals here. It’s always darkly amusing whenever someone thinks the martial arts are useful for anything outside the dojo. They’re _exercise_, not _combat_. > [@](#): > > He was just some idiot who walked into a random house uninvited and scared the shit out of the daughter of a mom he didn’t want to mess with. This time. ---
**Author:** ![RichS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@RichS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RichS)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/32 "2008-07-14T07:59:01Z")
As far as I can tell, we don’t get much of this kind of thing in east Texas. Austin has been having burglary problems, but Austin is a Yankee-city-wannabe with all the unsavory things that come with that. ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/33 "2008-07-14T09:35:18Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Next time, ensure your wife is armed so she can shoot the slimeball instead of having to run for help. [/QUOTE] Yeah, sure because having a break-in will keep you up at night, but shooting somebody in cold blood will make you feel safe. :rolleyes: Have you ever killed somebody, Rambo? ---
**Author:** ![FarmerChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@FarmerChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FarmerChick)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/34 "2008-07-14T10:10:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Quartz > Next time, ensure your wife is armed so she can shoot the slimeball instead of having to run for help. [QUOTE=Scoundrel Swanswater] Yeah, sure because having a break-in will keep you up at night, but shooting somebody in cold blood will make you feel safe. :rolleyes: Have you ever killed somebody, Rambo? [/QUOTE] No shit. She did the right thing, I will always call for help first. I’m pretty sure my shit isn’t worth killing someone over. Even if he/she is a scumbag. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/35 "2008-07-14T17:18:10Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] It’s always darkly amusing whenever someone thinks the martial arts are useful for anything outside the dojo. They’re _exercise_, not _combat_. [/QUOTE] Let me guess. You’re one of those lazy, out of shape people who did Karate for like two months back in '95, didn’t learn any _kewl deadly skillz_ and wrote it all off as a fitness scam. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/36 "2008-07-14T17:24:12Z")
Wow - we’s all neighbors. I’m in Robbinsdale, just off Broadway. Neat-O. Sorry that happened, Jumpy. And yikes, all my doors were open yesterday too - we were out working in the yard. Sucky. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/37 "2008-07-14T17:28:02Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] Update: our credit cards were used half an hour after the robbery at a gas station; the latest scam is that thieves offer to pay for people’s gas with stolen cards for cash back. The cops hope maybe they’ll have the guy on camera. They also said that the gas station in question is a notorious hang out for “low lifes”. [/QUOTE] Do **NOT** go down and stake out the gas station. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/38 "2008-07-14T18:15:06Z")
I say Northside Dope! Forget those foreigners in St Paul. They’re weird anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/39 "2008-07-14T19:01:05Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Let me guess. You’re one of those lazy, out of shape people who did Karate for like two months back in '95, didn’t learn any _kewl deadly skillz_ and wrote it all off as a fitness scam. :dubious: [/QUOTE] No, but you’re the genius who knows everything about everyone from one or two posts on a message board. Why don’t you try turning that high-power instrument on yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288/40 "2008-07-14T19:35:57Z")
I’m in Brooklyn Park by the community college and while it’s a nice neighborhood I still have to be on guard all the damn time. I left my garage open while I was home in the middle of the day (attached garage) and went out to find my car door ajar. Sure enough, somebody walked up the drive, rummaged through the center console and stole my piece-o-crap work cellphone. So now I have to keep my garage closed all… the… time. I probably look like a hermit to my neighbors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daytime-home-entry-bastard-in-my-house/456288.md?page=3)