You don't seem to hear too much about occupied home invasions in reputable neighborhoods in the US, something I ascribe largely to civilian gun ownership and also pretty stiff jail times.
However, last Christmas, while visiting family in England, in a very nice house in a pretty nice area, I experienced a very brazen burglary of a house clearly occupied but what was obviously more than one person (including myself.)
It's like 2am in a guest bedroom and I can't sleep. There's 5 people in the house, three women, my cousin, and my old man. A couple times I hear faint noises that I chalked up separately to the dog running around or someone tossing and turning in bed. Then it hits me like a cold bucket of water that the dog is locked up in the master bedroom on the opposite side of the house.
I proceed to engage in one of the most surreal games of my adult life. I get up and go creep into the hallway, sit there for probably 3 minutes, don't hear a thing. Convince myself I'm being stupid and get back into bed. A few minutes later for whatever reason I'm still seriously on edge, so I get back up and play the same game, but this time, from down and around a blind stairwell, I swear I can hear what sounds like breathing. I must be crazy I think, so I kind of decide I'm checking this out, so I creep back to my room and grab a heavy bookend. For whatever reason I decide to sit there for a minute or two and listen again. Again, no idea why, but I suddenly decide to whip open the shades overlooking the back yard, as I do so, I catch something black go over the back wall (into the street) out of the corner of my eye. Adrenaline rush, I'm trying to convince myself it's a cat, no don't be stupid it was too big: people are in the house, I'm having a <removed> moment now. With the new found chemical courage, I decide I've had it and go charging down the stairs flipping on lights as I go and as I open the kitchen door and turn on the lights, the freaking dining room door across the way slams shut. Now I'm in full on battle mode and I decide to bound back up stairs and drag my drunk ass cousin out of bed. We go down and discover nobody there anymore, but the dining room french doors wide open, muddy shoe prints everywhere, my jacket missing, drawers open left and right, and a couple prints going about 1/3rd of the way up the stairs - so it was breathing after all, I was maybe 7 feet away from this guy.
I realized pretty quick that these guys must have heard me getting up and moving around, gone quiet, waited for me to go back to bed, and then gone back to their business, seriously ballsy and pretty disturbing.
Police came etc etc. They explained that this isn't uncommon in England now. The house had two very nice BMW's parked in front - since modern cars basically cannot be hot wired the game is for these punks to break in and dig about for keys and make off the with the cars - obviously if there's nobody home, there's no keys, so people in the house actually ENCOURAGES them. While they're not necessarily looking for a fight there have been violent confrontations and some attacks.
The experience was absolutely <removed> and one of the foremost things on my mind is how different that whole experience would've been if I'd had a nice pump action with a streamlight up front. The police officer even agreed with me that this likely wouldn't be happening so much if homeowners were armed.
Anyway, sorry for the novel but this whole ordeal gave me a new appreciation for the 2nd. - Anyone else been in a similar situation?
However, last Christmas, while visiting family in England, in a very nice house in a pretty nice area, I experienced a very brazen burglary of a house clearly occupied but what was obviously more than one person (including myself.)
It's like 2am in a guest bedroom and I can't sleep. There's 5 people in the house, three women, my cousin, and my old man. A couple times I hear faint noises that I chalked up separately to the dog running around or someone tossing and turning in bed. Then it hits me like a cold bucket of water that the dog is locked up in the master bedroom on the opposite side of the house.
I proceed to engage in one of the most surreal games of my adult life. I get up and go creep into the hallway, sit there for probably 3 minutes, don't hear a thing. Convince myself I'm being stupid and get back into bed. A few minutes later for whatever reason I'm still seriously on edge, so I get back up and play the same game, but this time, from down and around a blind stairwell, I swear I can hear what sounds like breathing. I must be crazy I think, so I kind of decide I'm checking this out, so I creep back to my room and grab a heavy bookend. For whatever reason I decide to sit there for a minute or two and listen again. Again, no idea why, but I suddenly decide to whip open the shades overlooking the back yard, as I do so, I catch something black go over the back wall (into the street) out of the corner of my eye. Adrenaline rush, I'm trying to convince myself it's a cat, no don't be stupid it was too big: people are in the house, I'm having a <removed> moment now. With the new found chemical courage, I decide I've had it and go charging down the stairs flipping on lights as I go and as I open the kitchen door and turn on the lights, the freaking dining room door across the way slams shut. Now I'm in full on battle mode and I decide to bound back up stairs and drag my drunk ass cousin out of bed. We go down and discover nobody there anymore, but the dining room french doors wide open, muddy shoe prints everywhere, my jacket missing, drawers open left and right, and a couple prints going about 1/3rd of the way up the stairs - so it was breathing after all, I was maybe 7 feet away from this guy.
I realized pretty quick that these guys must have heard me getting up and moving around, gone quiet, waited for me to go back to bed, and then gone back to their business, seriously ballsy and pretty disturbing.
Police came etc etc. They explained that this isn't uncommon in England now. The house had two very nice BMW's parked in front - since modern cars basically cannot be hot wired the game is for these punks to break in and dig about for keys and make off the with the cars - obviously if there's nobody home, there's no keys, so people in the house actually ENCOURAGES them. While they're not necessarily looking for a fight there have been violent confrontations and some attacks.
The experience was absolutely <removed> and one of the foremost things on my mind is how different that whole experience would've been if I'd had a nice pump action with a streamlight up front. The police officer even agreed with me that this likely wouldn't be happening so much if homeowners were armed.
Anyway, sorry for the novel but this whole ordeal gave me a new appreciation for the 2nd. - Anyone else been in a similar situation?
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