‘You Sneeze, You’re Dead Man’: Texas Man Humiliates Burglars With 12-Gauge

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Suddenly I'm a pacifist?


Not at all, JJ. Frankly, I don't know you. I was saying that I woud support your actions within the law based upon your set of ethics. And I made that assertion that others-- including you-- should afford the same respect to others who may not share your ethical viewpoint.

-- John
 
i would be in jail if i tried that in NJ

you can sure bet i would be in jail if i tried that in new jersey. the second i walked outside of my house with a gun. this state is all for the bad guys. screw the homeowner.
 
If someone is breaking into my house then they are out to hurt my family or me there for they MUST DIE. Sorry if you do not like that.

You don't shoot to kill. You shoot to stop the threat. In this particular case stopping the threat occurred with the racking of the shotgun. No shots necessary. The homeowner handled this perfectly.

However, I would strongly recommend against putting blanket statements like yours up on the internet. What's posted here stays FOREVER and can come back to haunt you.

Springmom
 
The man resolved the issue, halted the threat, and 2 perps learned a lesson that the law & court system failed to impress upon them . . . breaking in to someone else's home is wrong AND now they know it can be dangerous.
 
Does someone taking your power drill and screwdriver set deserve to die?

"Does someone posing an unknown threat to you and your family on your property deserve to be confronted with deadly force?"

There, fixed it for ya.

We live in a world of hypotheticals, right up until we are in the situation where we're pointing a firearm at someone debating the need to pull the trigger.

"Sneeze and you're a dead man." It appears to me that there was no debate about whether he was going to pull the trigger. He left the decision as to whether it would be pulled up to the perp. That is as it should be. All is well in that part of the world. Good show!
 
No dilemma here. Two pieces of human debris enter a man's home (detached garage, whatever... it's his home) with intent to take his property deserve to be confronted with deadly force. Might they have been shot and killed? Their choice. Seems that a few earlier bad choices brought these scumbags to Mr Brooks's house, and for once they chose wisely - surrender.

Sneeze and you're dead? Probably a more effective attention-getter than "freeze". It elicited an appropriate response. I wouldn't read anything into it.

Looks like a nice neighborhood too. People like Mr. Brooks keep it that way. God bless Texas!
 
Tell you what... Legally justified or not, I'm not going to blast someone into the next world unless I absolutely have to. But if I'm going to go check out a noise in my house/garage I'm going to be armed. To be otherwise would be foolish - and potentially suicidal. And if I see someone rooting through my belongings, you bet I'm gonna point my firearm at them and order them to stop under the threat of dire consequences. If I think that they are going to try to eliminate me as a threat, then I'll stop the threat to myself and my family. It seems to me that it would be far better to fend off the threat before they get into your house than once they have gotten inside where your family is.

If they run away, I'm not going to stop them or interfere. I'll simply try to give the best physical description I can to the police. Hopefully in running away, they drop my stuff and boogie. Cops almost never recover stolen property. Thieves usually fence their stolen goods as quickly as they can to finance their drug habits etc.

Big ups to the homeowner on his handling of the situation. Well done sir! And you have renewed the admiration and respect of your longtime wife. Not a bad bonus there. I thought it was awfully cool to see his wife acting "all girlie" over her husband whom she obviously regarded as a hero.

Kudos to the local PD as well. Great response time and attitude. It was really nice to hear them lauding the gentleman's actions and giving him credit for stopping a serial burglar.

Nobody died. Nobody hurt. Homeowner lost nothing. PD reinforced what is good about them. Criminals are off the street. Win/Win situation!!!
 
"Does someone posing an unknown threat to you and your family on your property deserve to be confronted with deadly force?"

There, fixed it for ya.

Variables aside, someone that is outside your domicile, not trying to break in, does not justify being confronted with deadly force.

moderator Justin summed up my sentiments in alot fewer words than I've used in the spinoff thread that got closed. I think that says enough and I'm done with this one. We might as well be debating Glock vs. 1911, cause this idiocy aint goin' anywhere productive.
 
There but for the grace of God go I.

The sound of a racking shotgun is unmistakeable. The the spoken words were appropriate. He was well within Texas law to grease the burglars but he chose not to. No Monday morning quarterbacking from me. The next time may turn out differently. Who knows? Anyone else's encounter will be different.

Texas law would have prevented libility on his part as of this past Sept. 1.

Anygun
 
Whenever the 'defense of property'

issue arises I always wonder if there is any state that prohibits armed armoured car guards.

If defense of your personal property to the point of lethal force is not allowed why would the state allow armoured car guards to be armed. It would seem to me to that an armoured car guard, unarmed, could simply retreat to the safety of the armoured car and call the police.

If the state is asking private individuals to take these actions when their private possessions are being stolen then it should ask the same of it's corporate masters and their property/money. Banks and such are insured afterall.

migoi
 
Problem 2

Dealing with the aftermath of a Serious Situation.

Ever been the innocent victim of having your vehicle hit at in a parking lot, or stop sign?

Police showed up, Insurance Companies invlolved (yours and the person that hit you) getting the car fixed and having to deal with a Rental Car, or being out of pocket for a vehicle to use.
Maybe even Lawyers to get a settlement.

It was a hassle was it not? Shock, surprise, adrenalin rush when it happened, be it a minor fender bump or more serious requiring a EMT to appear and make a run to the ER, maybe even the OR for surgery.

Time, money, stress, concerns...

Serious Situations have consequences, compounded by local regulations, statues, political flavor, politics, and so on and so forth.

Insurance is just a hedge against life matters, such as cars, personal property being taken, vandalized, destroyed and the like.


I would advise folks to actually attend a Jury Trial.

One can read Law and Statutes, one can read definitions of these.
Grand Juries and Jury of one's peers - adds a whole new dimension to all this.
How Attorney's present and defend cases - adds dimensions to all this.
Judges add a new dimension.

You know how you "think" you feel and how matters "should be".

Problem 2 does not always agree, interpret or play out quite as one thinks and feel matters should be.

Go attend a Jury Trial, as a spectator if nothing else.
Take family, especially kids old enough to appreciate and comprehend best can.

If you have done Jury duty, you understand exactly what I am sharing.
 
If you are a burglar in somebody's property at night in Texas, then you should be worried about the morals of what you are doing and the fact that it may cost you your life. The law protects the homeowner in the use of lethal force in such a situation.

Those of you who don't think you should use lethal force in such situations because of your perception of morals, then don't. That's your call. My call is to operate within the limits of the law. Your morals won't protect you in court and they won't protect you from harm late at night.
 
Variables aside, someone that is outside your domicile, not trying to break in, does not justify being confronted with deadly force.

You are free to your opinion, but as for myself I will certainly protect mine the best way I can. Please put a sign up in your yard saying that you will only use deadly force for those coming into your house and see how long your car and any of your belonging that are not in your house remain yours. Any man who comes onto my property uninvited in the middle of the night justifies my confronting them with deadly force. I will not use it unless they force it, but I will certainly be there ready to use it if the need arises.
 
Things cost money. In order to make money, I have to work. Work takes time. Stealing my things=stealing my time. Burglars (as well as everyone else) in Texas know what the score is before they go stealing stuff. They are risking their lives doing such things. Don't ask property owners whether it's worth taking a life to protect their property. Ask the burglar whether it's worth LOSING his life taking someone's property. Stealing someone's things (esp. something expensive like a car) is just like stealing a year or two of someone's life, when you consider how hard they had to work to get it.
 
I don't see what the problem is...Even in a state where deadly force can't be used to defend property, taking a shotgun into your own garage is no crime, and the "sneeze and you're dead" comment is just a (first ammendment protected) comment that he might or might not have been willing to enforce. It never came to that, did it? Those guys didn't HAVE to believe him, did they? of course, if they would have made a move, he MIGHT have felt he was under attack on his own property, which would change the whole picture...If you're approached by some punk who says "gimme your money", you're still within your rights to say "Up yours", arent you? the aggression ball is now in the other guy's court, isn't it? And he has the choice of dropping it or escalating, which is the situation here...Good on 'im.
 
Variables aside, someone that is outside your domicile, not trying to break in, does not justify being confronted with deadly force.
This guy left his home, ... and rushed into a detached garage to confront them stealing property.
:confused:

I don't understand. The perps were inside his garage. Detached or not, it's still his home. Garage, barn, toolshed, henhouse, doesn't matter, they're all his home and property. What if the dirtbags walked into his backyard, where his children are playing? Would it matter if the backyard were surrounded by a fence? What's he supposed to do, stay in his house so he can hide behind a locked door?

I don't know about you, but the value of stuff in my garage far exceeds the value of stuff in the rest of my house. :eek:

Intruders can expect to encounter deadly force when entering either. I also would expect to defend my actions in a court of law if criminal or civil charges would be brought against me. I think Mr. Brooks's actions are laudable. I hope that under similar circumstances I could exhibit the same composure.

Sounding like a Capital One commercial, "What's in your garage?"
 
I don't know about you, but the value of stuff in my garage far exceeds the value of stuff in the rest of my house.

Many years ago, myself and a friend of mine had to go over to my girlfriend's parent's house. Nobody was home, but I had been given a key to the door that was accessed through the attached garage.

Upon entering the garage and wading through to the entrance to the house, my buddy looked around, then looked at me fiddling with the key to open the door and commented "Dunno why they lock this door and not the other one... every damn thing they own seems to be out here".

Anyway, as other have said, if you don't want me to shoot you, stay off my property and out of my stuff. If you do that, all will be well, and you won't end up with any extra holes in your hide.

As for anybody questioning my morals... How do you know that you're right and I'm wrong? ( It's a rhetorical question. I don't really want you to bother trying to answer 'cause I know you can't. ;) )

Besides, as long as I'm staying within the confines of the law, I'm obviously no more morally bankrupt than whoever passed those laws, and the people that elected them.


J.C.
 
My simple rules:

1) Mess with me & I'll attempt to walk away.
2) Continue to mess with me, and I'll hurt you.
3) Break in to my home and I'll confront you with the means to levy deadly force.
4) Comply with the commands "Freeze" and " On the Floor" and I'll hold you until the law arrives.
5) Run and I'll leave it to the law to find you.
6) Advance toward me & I WILL stop you.

Once I held 2 dirtbags at "coach gun-point" (most effective, I might add) on the floor, in my attached GARAGE (wherein there are a variety of tools that could well be used to inflict serious harm upon my loved ones or myself) until the law arrived. Once I broke a scumbag's wrist when he opted to attempt to punch me; somehow, he sustained a variety of "other" bruises. When the deputies picked him up, they said "Good job. Want to press charges?" I replied, "Most definitely." I've been in "you or me" situations outside of those described above . . . thankfulness for being alive at the end was far more prevalent than feelings of remorse. As I've stated before, paying for a lawyer beats me or mine paying for a mortician hands-down, every time. As an old Montana cowboy told me one time . . . "Mess with the bull & you get the horn." What's mine is mine & I AM "the bull."
 
Quite simply this:
The burglars knowingly entered his domicile without his permission and were up to mischief. The man in question had no proof whatsoever that they were benign, and every reason to believe that, if left unchecked, they might do further harm. Within his own domicile, he held two intruders, threatened them in response to their previous hostile actions, and detained them until the police arrived.

Now, if he sounded overly threatening in doing so.... well, I'm of the opinion that if you decide to invade someone's home, then your opinions of proper conduct and etiquette are a bit irrelevant.
 
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The real question isn't "does someone stealing your power drill deserve to die" it's "is a power drill worth getting shot over"
 
The Shadow

A few of you may be old enough to remember the radio program (yes, at one time radio had programs) "The Shadow". I believe the opening line was always, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men ---- the Shadow knows!"

The two criminals who tortured and murdered the wife and daughters of Dr. Petit had broken into a number of other homes prior to the Petit house. They got away with their crimes and finally became bold enough to move from stealing property to stealing life.

Any time a criminal decides that they can break the law they lose all sympathy for their actions. Life is full of choices. Wrong choices cause some people to die.

Trying to inject some so-called moral platitudes to justify criminal actions is one reason why crime has risen to such high levels.

If you enter a man's property with the intent to cause harm you deserve whatever happens when you are caught.

JWarren, I admire your restraint and your calm, reasoned logic. Well said.

John
Charlotte, NC
 
What if ?

Okay I'll play. How can anyone know what exactly was stolen from the last place these fellers broke into? AK-47s, AR-15s, some other deadly weapon?(I just used those firearms for reference, I don't think that they are any more or less dangerous than any other firearm). How can anyone know what those fellers (the perps) were looking for in the homeowners garage, gasoline to start the place on fire? something to use as a club or possibly an edged weapon? Rope to tie them up? We cannot know and neither did the homeowner. He did what many heads of households would do. He armed himself and went to go see.

At that point was he supposed to ask politely " will you boys be planning on harming my family or me tonight?" and if they answered "no" what then, ask if they want fries with that? Oh please.

Fellas that break into folks homes in the middle of the night are usually up to no good. And they should be dealt with accordingly.

He didn't shoot them he just promised to, if they sneezed. Maybe he was worried about contagious disease or sumthin'.

The idea that he should wait inside to see what the badguys had in mind is patently ridiculous.

Just my opinion.

Wheeler44
 
A buddy of mine has a sign on his garage door: "There is nothing in here worth YOUR life" The tools and materials in his garage are how he makes his living. Even insured to the penny(like that is possible for most folks) how many days work will he loose till the stuff is replaced? His property is his life.
 
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