Roommate Robbed at School!

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WhiteKnight

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I would like your advice on the following issue.

My roommate and her boyfriend were robbed this morning.

The story is:

They went into school today around 9am for the teacher workday at my roommate's elementary school. Due to inclement weather (lots of snow for the South), many teachers had opted out of coming to school for the day. My roommate's classroom is a brand new trailer outside the school (and about as far from the school as possible in regards to the property itself). Thus, she and her boyfriend were in relative isolation to the rest of the school, sounds cloaked by falling snow, and essentially powerless against multiple attackers.

The school is in a high-crime, low-income neighborhood (the ghetto) of the city where we live. On this day, my roommate and her boyfriend were working in her trailer organizing/lesson planning/cleaning. Two black guys started pounding on the door, and peeked their heads through the window. They were hollering about "somebody's chasing me with a gun; I need to call the cops." My roommate/bf got an uneasy feeling when they cracked the door, and told them to try the main office. The guys (four of them, actually) started running towards the main office, only to return a few minutes later to say that it was locked up.

My roommate's boyfriend cracked the door to tell the guys neither he or my roommate had a cell phone they could use (this was the pretense that the guys used), and when he did this, they shoved the door open and forced themselves in. Two of them entered, while the other two stood watch outside.

They demanded all of the money from the boyfriend, and said they had a gun and would start shooting if they had to.

They started searching my roommate for jewelry. When the boyfriend's wallet produced only $2 in cash (and the rest in credit cards), they demanded to know where the "real" money was at. In an act of desperation to get them out of the classroom before violence/sexual assault took place, the boyfriend tossed them his laptop computer and told them to leave. They grabbed the charger and ran off. The four black guys were all high-school age.

Despite a police report/K9 unit search/etc, nothing came of the four guys. My roommate's trailer doesn't have internet or phone or intercom access yet, so her only option was their cell phones (which they had already lied about not having in an effort for the guys to leave them alone). Now she's afraid to even be in that trailer because of the emotional memory she has of it.

Any advice on what she should do now (and maybe a two second blurb about what she could have done -- although armchair quarterbacking or bravado is not appreciated).
 
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very shocking story.

Having no means to "win" a fight, I think the guy did the right thing giving his laptop away It would have been much worse if the bad guys did something to your friend..

and they could have..

with this situations, you only whish one day they will face a heavy armed citizen able to win the fight, and doing just that..
 
Don't open the door

Call the cops

Don't open the door

Tell them you called the cops

Don't open the door
 
This is just one of those unfortunate stories that really have no answer, you are not able to carry/conceal on school property, so the only thing that can be done is more school security. That's just too bad.
 
Correction to my previous post: both of their cell phones were outside in her car.

The moral dilemma:

1) Decide not to help these guys (and potentially have them die at the hands of an attacker you would have prevented had you decided to help them).

2) Decide to help these guys (and potentially get robbed).

Both of them chose option #2, and got burned.

Is it necessary to "turn off" your humanity just to survive?
 
Tell the guys trying to break in you have called the police. They don't know your phone is in the car. If you're lucky, they'll take the hint and leave. If not, wait them out, don't open the door.
 
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My advice is to tell them to keep their cell phones on them instead of in their car. That would have allowed them to call the police when the BG's claimed that someone was after them with a gun without them having to open the door and let the BG's in.
 
My wife worked in a detached trailer. I made here lock the doors always, and when the school day was over, she went into the building. She spent zero time in that trailer alone! She had 1 time where a some older youths tried the door, right at the end of school, but she had the doors locked. She called me on the cell, I called the cops. They saw her making a call and left. (It was an elementary school, not a H.S.) I got there before the Police. I was accross the City too. They got there 5 -10 minutes after me, Likely 30 minutes after the initial phone call.

She thought I was nuts before that happened.

All I can say is LOCK the Doors, and Insist on SOLID DECENT DOORS! The school installed an alarm with a panic button on the trailer and a phone line to the school also. During the day other teachers came out on a regular basis to check on her. Although without weapons all they could have done is scream for help.:mad:
 
Not much you can do in that situation but never open a door, just talk thru it.

In this day and age I didn't know anyone did not carry cell phones on them.

Also, if this is a high crime area, the ghetto, never remain alone on the property.
 
I don't open the apartment door for anyone I have not invited, with the exception of the landlord who I know well.

That means anyone.

When being served papers, I arrange to meet the civil deputy outside the building at a time certain. When contacted by the police in connection with an investigation, I arrange to meet them outside. Nobody should be knocking on my apartment door except for the other tenants or the landlord.

Those friends dropping by my building unannounced have to get in the ground floor door, which is locked at all times and has no buzzer. For them to get in, I have to come down and open the door, which has vision slits. I generally exit the building to talk to people, rather than invite them into the building. My apartment door is closed and locked before I venture anywhere in the building, whether to open the building door or do anything else.

If it's a stranger, lots of luck.

I don't care if it's a beautiful woman claiming to have been robbed of her nymphomania pills, I'm not coming out of my apartment. Besides, the cops are who she needs to talk to, not me.
 
The moral dilemma:

1) Decide not to help these guys (and potentially have them die at the hands of an attacker you would have prevented had you decided to help them).

2) Decide to help these guys (and potentially get robbed).

Both of them chose option #2, and got burned.

Is it necessary to "turn off" your humanity just to survive?
Click to expand...

If they had kept their cell phones with them, they wouldn't have had the dilemma. There's a lesson there, if I were just smart enough to figure it out.
 
Hopefully they learn from it. Never put yourself out of communication with help (leaving cell phones behind, no phone in the room), never put yourself at the mercy of others by going unarmed (doesn't have to be a gun).

The moral dilemma:

1) Decide not to help these guys (and potentially have them die at the hands of an attacker you would have prevented had you decided to help them).

2) Decide to help these guys (and potentially get robbed).
Click to expand...
How exactly, as you noted in choice #1, would they have saved the day? If these kids forced their way into the trailer, an attacker(s) that had them 'scared' wouldn't have a problem either and apparently your friends had no phone or weapon. They'd just become victims #5 and 6.
 
you are not able to carry/conceal on school property, so the only thing that can be done is more school security
Click to expand...

This is not true in all cases. It depends on where you live. In Oregon it is perfectly legal. Don't get caught doing it, because they may not like that much, but the law does allow it. Just sayin'
 
What options for self-protection does she have now? She's actually afraid of sexual assault now that the "dogs smell blood," but obviously can't carry a firearm on school property. What should she suggest? A panic button? A uniformed guard? Security cameras?
 
Your friends are lucky to have only lost a laptop. Opening the door was a mistake. Treo's advice is right on. I might add, have a plan to go on the offensive once they breach the door.

Buy your lady friend some sort of SD tool that is legal to carry with her at school. In reality it may not do much good, but if it gives her a little peace of mind that is worth something.
 
Is it necessary to "turn off" your humanity just to survive?
Click to expand...
No it's not, in some situations my humanity shuts itself off -- like when there's four guys banging on the door, it's automatic.

When the perps told them a bad guy with a gun was chasing them they should have told them not to worry because they were in a Gun-Free Zone, they were perfectly safe. :rolleyes:

Your friend just got a cheap life lesson.
 
The moral dilemma:

1) Decide not to help these guys (and potentially have them die at the hands of an attacker you would have prevented had you decided to help them).

2) Decide to help these guys (and potentially get robbed).

Both of them chose option #2, and got burned.

Is it necessary to "turn off" your humanity just to survive?
Click to expand...

Emotions have no place when making decisions about ones survival. Survival is a logical decision not an emotional one.
 
My employees have kept the door locked talkin to strangers. No one has been offended yet. I keep two cell phones on me.
 
get a fire-extingguisher-size OC spray

92077.jpg


..and use it, when it seems a wise option.
 
What options for self-protection does she have now? She's actually afraid of sexual assault now that the "dogs smell blood," but obviously can't carry a firearm on school property. What should she suggest? A panic button? A uniformed guard? Security cameras?
Click to expand...

She should start by filing a lawsuit -- the school district deprived her of the means of self-defense, and then failed to protect her. This is "a hostile work environment" in spades. She should realize that next time -- and there will be a next time -- she may be raped or killed. She must make it clear to the district, "protect me or suffer the consequences."

Then she should carry a cell phone and pepper spray.
 
This is an issue for the Teachers' Union to pursue.

The result will be a chain link fence, and a land-line phone in the trailer. The school needs to install a phone, not just for criminal emergencies but also for medical emergencies & discipline problems.
------
I'll also plug encryption software and passwords for laptops. I'm sure a hacker can get in, but a highschool kids is going to end up trashing mine because it won't work for him.

And you can buy cell phones that require passcodes too..
 
Is it necessary to "turn off" your humanity just to survive?

Treo's reply: Sometimes
Click to expand...

+1. SOMETIMES.

~~Random Story~~
One time when I was younger (pre-gun & pre-marriage) I was leaving work and I was entering my car with my girlfriend (my wife now) and a young scrawny homeless guy walks up to us and says: "my truck ran out of gas and I forgot my wallet"

I said, "Why don't you walk home and get it"

He says, "I don't want to leave the tools in my truck"

I said "where is your truck"

He waves off to the side "over behind the taco bell"

So my girlfriend says "let's give him a few dollars don't you hvae some cash?"

So I gave the guy all my cash it was like $4. I basically felt like I was being robbed and I was extremely angry with myself for putting us in danger by not driving away. I was also mad at my girlfriend for making me hand over my hard earned money (I was making $8 an hour trying to save up for an engagement ring!).

We got away safely that time but it could have turned out bad. My girlfriend was not entirely in the vehicle and he could have grabbed her and put a knife to her throat just like that. I don't roll down my window for homeless people no matter what my wife says. And I NEVER give them a ride.

~Norinco
 
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