That’ll teach me to read the whole thread before posting. The violence inflicted on me in my lifetime has not come from strangers.
Still unsure how you define “home invasion”.
Based on watching his attempts to force our door open, I’d call it an attempted forced entry*. When he found himself looking into the muzzle of my gun, he realized he had urgent business elsewhere. No shots fired, no words exchanged.
I don’t know how this situation counts in your poll, since it took place outside and the door was never breached.
*It was late at night. He thought we were inside and asleep.
My parents were active in Civil Rights, and one night in 1968 some men came in, put a shotgun to my dad’s head and drove him out into the cornfields to persuade him. (I’ve posted this story so many times over the years, I sure don’t blame anyone for rolling their eyes at how it took 42 post before I entered the thread)
I’m assuming by “home invasion” you mean an armed attack with intent to commit assault, robbery, rape and/or murder on the occupants, so that’s how I answered. I would exclude burglaries and also people breaking into my garage to nick my bicycle while I’m in the main house.
Also the legless guy who landed in my courtyard (and rapidly exited over the wall) while making his way across the rooftops to escape the security guys catching him for the burglary he was in the process of committing doesn’t really count. He was just in transit, as it were. And I don’t mean he was very drunk, when I say legless.
Most states don’t have a separate statute for home invasions. The crime is covered under other laws, usually multiple laws. One definition from a law dictionary I saw states “A break and enter of occupied residential premises with forced confinement, assault or battery of occupants.” Which sounds pretty good to me (as a definition). In a home invasion the criminal(s) know the residence is occupied. Their tactic is to somehow force themselves in and subdue the occupants by force. In a burglary the criminal is hoping to not find anyone. Some are willing to resort to violence if found, others are not. A home invasion is planned to be a violent act. It’s not surprising that people are confused since many use the terms robbery and burglary interchangeably.
No one is saying that your feelings of violation are invalid when someone breaks into your house and takes your property. But there is a difference between someone sneaking into your house to take your jewelry and someone breaking down your door,tying you up at gunpoint and taking your jewelry. That difference is why we have different terms.
Yep, but it was a SWAT team at the wrong address. Well, the address was right based on what the drug dealer told them but that information was false. And they forgot their warrant too.
That is impressive.
A good friend of mine had a break-in to her apartment not that long after she moved in.
The scary thing is, she had a SECOND break-in not that long after.
Since very little (if anything) was taken, despite her having some decent stuff, we’re of the opinion that someone didn’t know that the previous tenant had moved, and came in looking for something specific.
Very weird…
I can’t participate in the poll as I’m on an iPhone, but when I was a kid my older sister came home to her college apartment to find a man waiting in her bedroom. She basically went nuts on him-struggled and screamed-and he got spooked and ran. After he left she found one of her kitchen knives on the floor of her bedroom. She moved back home for a while and woke up screaming about once a week.
The first girlfriend I lived with was sitting in our living room in full view of the window. She heard a noise behind her and looked over to see a guy outside messing with the window. She yelled for me and when I entered the room the guy ran away. I went outside and checked the window and the screen was cut. I have no doubt that it would have turned out very differently if I wasn’t home.
I may have exaggerated slightly - he had legs/stumps down to the knees or just above. But yes, it was impressive how damn fast he moved. I barely registered someone had fallen into the courtyard when he was off again - just shot up the fence arm-over-arm like a gibbon.
They caught him 2 or 3 houses down the road, I heard later.
My (parents) house was robbed when I was 17. We were all out, and they stole my mom’s diamond ring, my dad’s baseball card collection, my grandpa’s pocket watch and my brand new Airwalk shoes (when they were still worth something). They went through all our stuff, too. All of our dresser drawers were dumped out.
There was sobbing, there was shaking, there were fingerprints and cops and stuff. I couldn’t be home alone at night for like 8 years after that.
But it was not a home invasion, just a burglary. They wouldn’t have come in if we’d been home. It made me super sad for a super long time but to me it doesn’t even come close to what some of the other examples of “home invasion” in this thread (raping, murdering).
Sort of.
I used to have two roommates. For some reason we were really protective of our stuff, so we all locked our bedroom doors when we went out.
One night when I was out, a returning roommate was greeted by two guys at our front door. They insisted that he let them in. I’m not sure if they were armed, but I seem to remember something about a knife. My other roommate was either already home, or came home just after.
They tried to call 911, but the invaders ripped the phone out of the wall. Then they got my roomies to unlock their bedroom doors, and they got some stereo equipment and I think a TV.
Since my room was locked, they didn’t get any of my stuff. I came home just after this happened.
I’ve wondered if you could defend yourself from something like that. Then one day I saw this video where some guy actually made real sentry guns. Do you think the systems they sell would be legal with a real gun?
I voted no, and noted the disparity between the poll and the posts-a vast majority in the poll are voting “No”, but most of the responses in the thread itself fall into the “Yes” category.
Before I met him, this happened to a guy I used to know when he was a teenager. A business deal his father made with another guy went sour. Turned out the other guy was crazy, threatening to hurt the father, mother, and my friend. On a weekday night, the crazy guy quietly broke into their home and shot the mother in the head. Dad and son hear the gunshot from the front room, dad grabs his recently purchased handgun and goes out into the hallway from the master bedroom, where he sees the crazy guy at the other end. Exchange of gunfire ensues. Both are wounded. Son calls police.
Crazy guy gets convicted for murder. Father and son live without wife/ mom.
When I lived in NOLA, one night around 3 am, some crackheads broke into the courtyard of my apartment complex and had a party. Not sure what-all was involved. Don’t want to know. Around 4 am I woke about halfway up to the sound of a naked crackhead smashing through the front door of my upstairs apartment. Lying in bed half asleep, I was brought to immediate full consciousness about ten seconds later when said crackhead smashed through the bedroom door. There is no adrenaline rush like a screaming naked crackhead in your bedroom at 4am adrenaline rush. Next thing I knew, I had grabbed him and thrown him back through the bedroom door. I then tripped and face-planted from the sheets and covers tangled around my legs. I sprang up and grabbed the baseball bat from the closet and ran into the front room yelling incoherently at the top of my lungs and waving the bat at the guy. He tripped backwards through the front door, then scooched backwards to the stairs, where he scooched over the edge of the landing and tumbled backwards down the staircase to where his 3 crackhead buddies were standing. Not sure if there was violent intent or not. Glad I did not have to find out.
I don’t think that’s surprising. There’s no interesting story to post about if you answered “No” in the poll, while everyone who answered “yes” is going to have something different to say.
Well, not for lack of effort.
I answered the door of our Grand Junction home to a guy about 6’ 1", 195 lbs who had a package in his hands. He tried to hand it to me and when I took it he had a stainless steel automatic underneath and he tried to rush me and force his way inside. There wasn’t any time to think, I just reacted. With my left arm I swept the gun back so it wasn’t pointing at me and grabbed for control of it. I’m 6’0" and 220 so I had a little weight advantage on him and all I really remember is that we were pushing at each other with our shoulders while struggling for the gun. My wife was behind me so fortunately it never went off and I was yelling for her to call 911. It probably only lasted about 10 seconds, I shoved him back outside finally and slammed and locked the door. Then I ran for my automatic and bolted out the door to chase him and maybe get a license plate.
Turns out an even bigger guy was right around the corner, they hopped into a car and sped away, this told me by a freaked out neighbor who looked out to see what the commotion was about.
So “no”, just lucky I guess.
Like tornado reporting. The close ones are talking about it. the ones actually hit are usually still working on recovering.
Pick a category, I have had 1 or more in each.
::: not fun in any manor ::::
I just thought of another one. I can’t say I was friends with the guy, but we did a musical project together and I know I was in his apartment at least once.
He was a student, musician, and drug dealer. And apparently he kept a lot of product in his home.
One day, in the middle of the day, two men dressed as police officers knocked on his door. The forced their way in, made him lie on the floor, and took all of his drugs and probably cash as well.
The general opinion was that they were not real cops. Needless to say, he didn’t call the real cops about it.