Suggested by a current thread. Poll in a moment. Since the options are neither recipes nor wisecracks and the we’re talking about real life stuff, the answers will be private. Of course you can talk about real-life in the thread.
Answering my own question: yes. There’s either two and a half or three occasions I can think of, depending on how you look at things.
My best friend from high school was attacked in her own home, beaten, repeatedly raped, and kidnapped by an … acquaintance of her family. Her assailant was armed; she was not. He kept her prisoner for about two days, controlling her in part by threatening to do worse things to her young niece who lived with her. He took her out of the house to loot her bank account, and she escaped by jumping out of a moving car when he was inattentive. Happily she survived, though she was in the hospital for days afterward and it took her months of therapy to get over it. Her assailant was arrested in short order and will be a guest of the state till he’s dead, which cannot come soon enough.
A co-worker of mine from my retail days was attacked in her own driveway by two fellows who forced her, her husband, and their children into the house; one kept her and the kids hostage while the other forced the husband to go to the bank to empty their account. Happily everyone survived. I don’t know if the robbers were ever caught; I was no longer friends with the woman, and only knew about it because it made the local news and I recognized her face when she was answering some reporters idiotic questions.
The half incident happened to me and my family when I was about two. I’m only counting it as a half because I don’t actually remember it myself; it’s just something I was told about when I was older. Anyway, when we lived in public housing some yahoo broke into the house with felonious intent, only to be stared down by my mother’s revolver (which my father, bizarrely, later insisted that she get rid of).
The elderly parents of some friends of the family were murdered in their homes during a home robbery. Case unsolved, I think ( this was quite some time ago and I’m not in touch with those folks ).
I know someone ( friend of the family again ) who was murdered overseas, almost certainly for political reasons. She was killed in her home.
Yes! Two. A girlfriend of mine back in college was at a camp, and someone who worked there (maintenence person, IIRC) came into the cabin where she and her roomie were sleeping, climbed into bed with my friend and started assaulting her. No shrinking violet she; she pushed him away, stood up on her bed and started screaming at the top of her lungs. He was arrested and it turns out he’d pulled this stunt many times before but most girls acquiesced and, probably out of shame, never told.
Also my current next door neighbor’s brother used to live on block away. He came home from picking up his little son for weekend visitation and interrupted a man who was in the process of burglarizing his house. The burglar shot him dead and escaped; the guy’s kid went into the house right after that and found his body. The murderer was subsequently apprehended and is doing life; it was a well-publicised case here.
In a house I used to own I had a detached garage on the alley. The dogs (a Rottweiler and a German shepherd mix) had free run of the yard, garage and laundry/mud room of the house when we were out. One day I came home and found the garage door closed on top of my mountain bike. We figured someone had jimmied the garage door latch, decided to make off with my nice Bianchi bike, and then, SURPRISE! :eek::eek: Two hundred pounds of combined scary dog interrupted that little plan and s/he slammed the garage door down on top of the bike and booked. I looked in vain for blood; I really hoped that one of the dogs (The Rottweiler was a marshmallow and large but extremely friendly but the GSDx was a real bitch) had taken a chunk out of the thieving asshole.
My uncle’s mother-in-law had her purse stolen from her handbag in her own house while she was watching TV one evening. Someone slipped unnoticed in and out her unlocked back door. Does that count?
Very much like your first one, I have an acquaintance (former classmate) who was the victim of a classic (legitimate) stranger abduction and repeated rape scenario. He “abducted” her into her own home, kept her restrained and did unmentionable things over the period of about a week. She’s still pretty fucked up mentally, 15 years later. Can’t blame her, really.
Recently, some friends were out of town on a little romantic getaway. The man who lives in the basement (of the single-family house, he’s a friend and roommate, not a tenant) was home. He heard footsteps upstairs, assumed it was their teenaged son home unexpectedly, but it wasn’t. Jewelry, camera/equipment and some Random Stuff gone. The rather large flatscreen TV was in the backyard, presumably left there by the thief/ves because it was too bulky to get away with.
Since the jewelry was kept in a box which wasn’t particularly jewelry box looking, and the whole thing was just so amateurish, it’s suspected that it was a friend or acquaintance of the teenager, or of his very recently ex-girlfriend. Someone who’d been an invited guest into the home at some point and knew where such things were located.
So we’re clear: “by home invasion,” I did not mean simple burglaries in which the resident was not aware of the intrusion until after the criminals had left, nor instances in which the intruder used no violence nor threat of violence, or immediately fled when the resident appeared. I meant instances in which the intruder used or threatened violence in the home (either as the primary purpose of the crime, as in my friend’s case, or as a means to an end, as in my co-workers case) or cases in which the intruder only left because he himself was threatened with violence.
I posit that by definition, someone who stealthily enters your home and steals something (or just enters without stealing something) has de facto committed a violent and (at least potentially) threatening act.
Because I’ve always heard and used the term “home invasion” to mean “incursions by a criminal into a private home while the residents are present for purposes for violence.” It’s a distinct crime from burglary. That’s part of the reason I only count the incident from when I was two as a half; we don’t actually know what the guy intended, since Mom’s pointing the revolver at him persuaded him to go elsewhere. (The rest of the reason is that, even though I’m told I was present when this happened, I have no memory of it.)
By which I mean, if I owned a firearm (I never have but I am a female living alone) I would probably be completely justified in shooting, to death, a stranger entering my home without cause. And I would certainly expect my current dogs would be given all sorts of latitude for biting the shit out of a stranger busting into my house without introduction or permission.
I can’t agree. Many burglars will wait until the residence is believed to be empty before making their incursion, or be careful to avoid anyone in the residence while there.
As my best old ex-friend Ray used to say, “Words have meanings.” If no act of violence has been committed against a person, then violence has not been done. If the resident was absent during the incursion, or never encountered the criminal while it was going on, then the resident cannot have been threatened. Threats require interaction between the two parties.
I mostly agree with that, but for you to shoot the person, you have to know he’s there, yes? If you’re only aware of the incursion after the criminal has left – because you were absent the entire time, or because he stealthily avoided drawing your attention while you were elsewhere in the house–then you don’t seem to have been under threat. (I’m using that term to be distinct from “in danger.”) Moreover, if you point a gun at an intruder who immediately drops whatever he is carrying and puts his hands on his head, or runs out the door), you’re not justified in shooting him either.
(The above presupposes that you are not in Texas.)
When I was a kid - I heard from my aunt & uncle how they had been tied up during a burglary (upper floor apartment). I got the impression that they weren’t in the least but traumatized by it, but now that I think of it - the may have just been acting that way for me.
I have a very good friend whose mother (think of the sweetest - most gentle woman you know) was at home when a guy dressed in camo with an assault rifle (please spare me the definition stuff - I know the make - but not really relevant) broke the glass door to what is an enclosed courtyard. She heard the noise and came out of a bedroom - she saw him standing in the courtyard - with the rifle next to his cheek [im sure there is a name for this position, but not sure what it is] - “sweeping” the room. He didn’t see her (apparently), but she went back to the bedroom - and got her own two guns that had been given to her by my friend. I can’t imagine how scared she must have been. She shot at the guy (and originally the police thought she hit him (due to the blood, but it turned out it was from the glass break)). He ended up getting cornered by the cops - somewhere else - and let’s just say he’s not around anymore to do this to anyone else.
We all have some new respect for my friend’s mom That was the first time she ever even fired a gun.
Hmmm. Sitting with my shaking, invaded, violated friend as the police dusted her television for fingerprints as she sobbed over the loss of her wedding ring, the necklace her (recently deceased) dad bought her when the graduated high school, the macaroni necklace her baby boy had made her his first week of preschool, the magickal talismans she’d created over 30 years as part of her religion and much more… And as she contemplated that the perpetrator was probably a person she’d bought soda and pizzas for and could come back at any time and help themselves to more stuff, or, should they decide, hurt her and her children…I’m not sure I see a great distinction, emotionally. She acted and spoke exactly as (some) women who I’ve sat with waiting for their rape exam act. She no longer feels her home is a safe place, while at the same time she doesn’t feel it’s safe to leave her home unattended.
But it’s your thread, so I officially withdraw my second anecdote.
ETA: “OH and another thing…” Your OP asks for home invasion, not violence.
About ten years ago, my then next door neighbor and her son were jumped as she was bringing him home from school. One of the guys involved was the son of the guy who worked on both our yards.
The house I’m in right now was broken into while I was gone, and it was nothing in comparison.
Welp I agree with you somewhat, Skald. It’s not OK to shoot and kill someone who is merely breaking into your house thinking it’s empty, and they wouldn’t REALLY hurt you, and they’re not REALLY a threat.
As a single female living near one of the highest-crime cities in the US (Flint, Mich)…well I may not be armed but someone coming into my house unnanounced will, I sincerely hope, get the crap bitten out of them by my dogs and beaten over the head with a big stick if I’m home at the time.
If you have never had your home broken into and ransacked, or your vehicle stolen and trashed (yes to both here) you may not realise how much of a personal violation that can be. You may think thats OK. I do not. You, person who has no concept of work ethic or responsibility; how DARE you try to steal what I have worked hard for and paid for and paid taxes on and been responsible for? Sorry, you have no rights…to the two guys who stole my truck and stole everything you could off of it and trashed it (I did get it repaired and back but it cost me a bundle) - I truly wanted you both to die at the time and to this day would not give a single shit if I found out you both died slow painful deaths, hopefully before having the opportunity to breed.
So I guess you are technically correct in that a “simple” burglary or auto theft is not really a direct threat of violence (although it should be noted that once committed, the individual has access to your home and vehicle and identification unless you go through the expense of changing locks, credit cards and so on) but it is most definitely threatening and unsettling.
Taking the position that it’s more OK if someone who breaks into your home when they think nobody is there is disingenuous (see my second anecdote in post # 3) and assuming that person is non-threatening and harmless is naive.
I think you’re misunderstanding my position. I’m okay with your beating an intruder who refuses to beat feet or surrender when alerted to your presence. All you need to do, in my judgment, is say, “Get the fuck out of my house, asshole!” or “I am armed, put your hands on your head and surrender.” If the criminal disobeys, feel free to brain him (and in fact I’d rather you were pointing a gun at him rather than brandishing a baseball bat). All I meant was that, if the criminal has retreated, or is off your property when you discover the intrusion, you may not ethically shoot him, and chasing out after him with a baseball bat, tire iron, or whatnot is foolish.
Someone breaking into your harm when you are present may be presumed to wish you ill; there I agree. It’s only if they are RETREATING that you are forbidden to shoot, because shooting at someone is attempting to kill them.
That was the first time she ever even fired a gun.