This is a bit off topic, but indulge me. We had a little situation in our neighborhood last week, involving a home invasion. A couple masked (evidently armed) guys tied up a family and ransacked their house. The father was in the garage when the intruders made their entrance. The mother and a teenage child were also in the house. This happened in my sleepy suburban neighborhood, so it can happen anywhere.
The good news is that no one got hurt. They lost some money and some jewelry and I’d imagine they got a pretty good scare, given they were tied up in their bedroom after opening the safe. I don’t know the family, but it was the best outcome they could have gotten. As you can imagine, our neighborhood is in a tizzy. There are discussions of putting gates at the entrances, as well as significantly increasing the private security patrols that we contract. Yup, there is plenty of opportunity for security theater here.
But security theater isn’t interesting to me. I deal with that crap every time I fly. It got me thinking about what I’d do in a similar situation. I’m in the garage, the Boss and the kids are in the house. Multiple armed men enter the garage.
It’s quite a quandary. Some of you Hong Kong Phooey types might try to fend off the attackers. Do you run? Do you attack? Do you sacrifice everything to keep them out of the house? Do you try to talk some sense into them? Even if you have a gun in the house, how often are you in your garage? If you have an alarm, will you be able to hit the panic button? Should you, given that it could cause an unstable attacker to do something rash? Remember, you have family members in the house, which are unlikely to be as equipped as you to deal with the situation.
I think I know what I’d do. But I’m not sure what standard operating procedure would be, so I’m asking for some help. I know a bunch of you have law enforcement and/or military backgrounds, and many have advanced training in all sorts of self-defense tactics. In a similar situation, what do you do? The police are holding a meeting in our neighborhood next week, so we’ll find out what they suggest we do. But that’s just one opinion, right?
This seems like a targeted situation. The family has money and drives fancy cars, lives at the edge of the neighborhood, and their culture is known to keep cash and valuables in the house. None of which is my situation. But I’m wary of being too optimistic and naive about the risks to my family. So I’m going to do the threat models. I need to take precautions. I need to train my family what to do in a similar situation. What should I teach them?
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13 Replies to “Home Invasion: What would you do?”
Thanks everyone for the comments. To be clear, I don’t give a rat’s ass about my possessions. I keep very little money in the house and don’t have much of true value. Plenty of stuff with sentimental value, but little that would be worth much on the black market.
My fear is the shown in the article linked by @anonym. It’s the psychopath that isn’t interested in my stuff, rather to do physical damage. Not sure what to do about those types of folks. Though I do appreciate the many that suggested I keep a gun in the house, it’s pretty unlikely I’d be armed at the point of attack.
A bunch of folks sent private messages about a remote triggered alarm system. It’s more likely that I’d have my keys on me, and a key fob that could send a panic alert. That’s a good idea as well and will be looking into that.
My first instinct is to infer the intent of the attack, which gets back to @JoeK’s thought that it depends. If they try to physically attack, after I assure them they can have anything I own in exchange for my safety, then you fight to survive. You’ve got no other option. If it’s clear they are only after stuff, you likely comply, though it would be hard to allow someone to tie me up in my own house. Not sure I’d go for that.
The Boss is going to a neighborhood meeting to see what the Police suggest. I’ll update accordingly.
That ALL assumes that it is A ROBBERY and not something of that sort: http://abcnews.go.com/US/joshua-komisarjevsky-showed-remorese-petit-murders/story?id=14607151
I live in a gentrifying neighborhood in an area known for its extreme wealth and its extreme poverty. My particular street, for whatever reason, is being targeted by a gang of miscreants. There have been home invasions, armed robberies, and petty break-ins. We’ve been lucky in that only our car was ransacked. But the question keeps me up at night – what would I do if we end up one of the houses that gets broken into in the middle of the night? Realistically, I’d probably pretend to sleep through the whole thing while trembling in fear. But if that wasn’t an option I’d cooperate. I can always get more stuff. Still though, it’s sobering to think about the realities of what could happen if the perpetrator isn’t so keen on cooperation and is out for blood.
Having a monitored alarm is purported to reduce the odds of being a target for a home invasion, some accounts say by as much as 1/3. I have a keyfob for my alarm and can arm and/or panic from anywhere. It is silent as well, though I have signage prominently displayed. Though I keep firearms in my home I don’t think that they are practical for response unless they are on my person at the time, and even then it may not make sense to use a weapon.
All that said, I feel a bit like I’m explaining to my CEO what we do to avoid being a target of an APT in the cloud! You have fallen victim to the trend to exagerate and sensationalize a very low likelihood event due to the emotional and personal nature of the impact. Don’t you pay attention to Rich’s talk concerning the psychology of security? =)
I’m no pro or anything but I’d let the thieves take whatever they wanted then call the police. Possessions can be replaced but a hasty action could provoke a more drasticresponse. If I were a cop or military my response might be different.
Take out insurance on your vauables and instruct them to try and keep calm and cooperate. Ps. I am not a home intruder.
Hi,
I live in the north of Mexico.
As you know, right now we’re living a very difficult moment.
We’re experiencing, day after day, gun shootings, home invasions, kidnappings, etc.
I don’t have any experience in this kind of situations.
But, from the people I’ve heard who had lived a situation like that and have live to tell is “always cooperate”.
Because, as you’ve mentioned, the attackers are unstable people, so they’re waiting for a trigger to act against you.
Our families are above any possession.
I you want to act against home invasions, the best is to implement preventive (locks, cameras, alarms, etc.) and persuasive (open areas, fences, sensor based automatic lights, etc.) controls.
But, if none of those controls worked, I think the best is “cooperate” with them.
Horacio
Mike:
A home invasion is certainly a frightening prospect, no matter how prepared you may be. When your family is involved, it is surely even scarier.
The thing to remember (and to impress upon your wife and kids) is that protecting each other is the only priority in that sort of situation. If there are bad guys in the house, leave the house. You should only introduce a weapon into the situation if it’s necessary to ensure your (and your family’s) safety.
Of course every situation is different and there’s always an exception. I think it’s safe to say, though, that the goal of most home invasions is to grab some loot and run. If you simply can’t talk your attackers out of your garage and remove yourself and your family from the situation, make sure that you stay calm and let your attackers take the money, jewelry, etc., that they came for. Your family’s well-being cannot be measured in dollars or carats.
Just remember: in this sort of situation, you’re still a hero as long as you get your family safely out of harm’s way.
The link in my first comment is specific to the robbery types. This link http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/robbery.html is the one where I’d start as it takes you through everything from the top down.
Hey Mike,
The answer for this is, it depends. It’s a complex issue that is very situational specific. What type of people are the intruders? Are they rational, irrational, desperate, high, etc. etc. Are they armed? With what? Are they looking just for money and items…or something else entirely? In other words there are no pat answers. I HIGHLY recommend you, and your wife, sit down together for a few evenings and read as much as you can; starting here http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/robbery_types.html