View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2005 > October > 10 > Entry
Home invasions bring terror home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At about 1:45 a.m. the north Fulton victim was unloading his bags from his car after arriving from the airport. Four men entered his home through the front door. At least one was armed. Three had shirts pulled over their faces and one had a bandana.
Two went upstairs. This victim rents the downstairs area from the other victims, who were upstairs asleep at the time.
The second victim said that he heard his dog barking and went downstairs. He was confronted by two of the suspects and struck on the head with a gun. He and his wife were ordered to the kitchen floor while the suspects ransacked several rooms.
The suspects took several items, including a laptop, purse, wallet, keys, $200 in cash, a cell phone and credit cards. One victim required medical attention (stitches.) The description of the suspects is vague, only that all were young. There is no vehicle description.
The victims’ credit cards were later used in Stone Mountain and Clarkston. Among the items taken was $12,000 in jewelry. In a followup interview, one of the victims said one of the suspects wore a ski mask.
We don’t have a lot of home invasions but, as in this case, they are extremely dangerous. It’s hard to tell people how to prevent one. You don’t know if it’s going to happen — unless you’re not drug dealer.
That becomes evident when the occupant of a $700 a month apartment reports a home invasion where the bad guy got a whole, big ol’ bunch of cash. I’m not talking to you. That’s the cost of doing business. You’re on your own.
For those of you hit at random, the only tipoff would be seeing a car parked nearby or someone coming to the door. NEVER open the door to anyone you don’t know (and like) for any reason. Even then, most home invaders have the element of surprise.
Many target people whom the bad guys know have or carry large amounts of cash or commodity. Business owners — primarily restaurant owners — may bring cash home with the plan to deposit the money the following morning.
If you get into a habit, someone somehow connected to an employee or whatever circumstance will catch on. Then you are in trouble.
Too many people are too relaxed when they move money. Convenience store employees will walk the money drop next door to the bank or down the street and never think that someone may be watching them for the purpose of robbery.
All you can do is remember that it CAN happen.
Do any of you have tips on safely carrying or holding money? Or on making yourself a less likely crime target?
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Don
October 10, 2005 12:31 PM | Link to this
So what if you’re late to your daughters wedding. Other people need to exercise in that freshly polluted air. The job interview you just missed…Thank the bicycle club in front of the traffic line. Does it really make sense to let your spouse wear foam rubber pads and a cute little helmet to duel with a metal, 2000 lb., 40mph boulder in a hurry, with bad eysight?
By Lee
October 10, 2005 2:07 PM | Link to this
The ways I have heard for making yourself less likely a target for crime is information from other cops. “Don’t look like a victim”, which means, be aware, Act like you know where you are and what you are doing confidently. Also, carry your car keys with a key (or keys) between your fingers so that if you have to hit someone, they get stabbed with the keys. Make it a habit to do this, or to hold mace/pepper spray when you walk.
Park in the light when parking at night.
For carrying money, use a moneybelt, hide it in your boot, and carry money in more than one spot on your body (pickpockets won’t get it all if they aim for one pocket). Put a fat rubber band around your wallet so it doesn’t come out easily. Put your wallet in your front pocket, a much harder target for pickpockets.
… and don’t walk through downtown flashing a roll of hundreds.
By Mike
October 10, 2005 7:53 PM | Link to this
Many years ago, the houses on both sides and behind my parents’ house got burglarized. My parents’ had a window screen pulled back. On the inside of the window, their three chow chows left nose prints and paw prints all over the glass. I think their crime prevention system worked!
By Linda
October 11, 2005 4:25 AM | Link to this
Never EVER, never, never, ever park under a broken street light/parking lot light!!! Wether you look like a victim or not doesn’t matter in this situation because if a criminal type is watching you, you already are a victim. I have had my purse snatched twice in 3 years and both times were under broken street lights/parking lot lights. I never paid attention to that kind of thing before but I do now.
I am a native Georgian and have seen more than my share of crime in my life. I am by nature, very cautious - scanning the parking lot before I start walking, looking under cars long before I get close enough that I would have to bend down to see under them (bending down puts your body off guard), having a plan to throw my keys towards the woods, a clump of trees under another car (a low to the ground car) should anyone try to force me into my car. I have a plan to drive fast while swerving should anyone approach my car while I am already sitting in it brandishing a gun - it’s hard to hit a moving target (the car is not so important to me but my 3 children, who are almost always with me, are - I would never allow someone to take my car with my children inside it - NEVER.) I stay awake half the night keeping watch over my family and home. When getting in my car I lock the doors even before I shut them. I avoid strangers walking toward me in a parking lot - either turn and walk back toward the store or another group of people or shout at them firmly so that everyone else in the vecinity will stop and stare. Yelling “FIRE!” is very useful because everyone wants to see a fire and will come running (oddly people are reluctant to respond to “HELP!”).
Get a Great Dane. I lived in a really bad neighborhood for a while and I had a Great Dane. One night (around 3 AM) I heard a strange sound that turned out to be my dog sniffing the front door threshold with his giant sized nostrills. I stood silently watching him. Then suddenly he raised his head and ran to the window nearest the front door, threw back the blinds with his nose and laid down the law with threatening barking and growling. It was then that I felt a vibration which was customary in that house when someone was coming onto or going off of the front porch. Another time my dog frightened away a man who was appraoching my car in an angry manner. The man threw up his hands when he saw my Great Dane, backed up and into his car and drove away as fast as he could go.
By Susan
October 11, 2005 9:11 AM | Link to this
I too have been the victim of a burglary where my home was invaded, ransacked, and all my electronics and jewelry taken. After this frightening event, I bought a Doberman, put up a five foot locked fence, and bought an alarm system. Hopefully this will act as a deterent.
By Dave
October 11, 2005 12:16 PM | Link to this
I have a Browning 12 ga. automatic with a 20 inch barrel loading with 00 buckshot & I don’t dial 911
By Sam
October 11, 2005 1:47 PM | Link to this
I’ve lived in houses in what are probably high-crime neighborhoods in SW and SE Atlanta for 8 years now, but I have no house alarm, no dog, no gun, no car alarm, and at least two doors that could easily be broken open, yet there has never been an attempted break-in nor has anything even been taken out of the unlockable shed in the back, and I personally have never had any threat against my person either robbery or other motive. Am I living on borrowed time? Maybe, but crime can happen anywhere, and virtually all of the people who get in trouble near where I live were looking for trouble and found it.
By Trudy
October 11, 2005 2:42 PM | Link to this
I think that the money should be held in the confines of the store until morning so that a drop can be made at that time. My friend recently told me that he made a 1500.00 drop after he closed a retail established that he manages and it was around 10:00pm! He was alone at the time. That is very risky. Make the drop in the morning, I mean what’s the rush it will still be credited that same business day and a life will be possibly spared.
By Jason
October 11, 2005 9:30 PM | Link to this
Amen Dave. If anyone who has ever had to use Fulton’s 911 dispatch, then he or she knows that self defense is the only defense lest we all have our own individual police officer guarding our very front doors. Shotguns are too big for home defense IMO. I prefer my trusty Springfield 1911-A1 .45.. it will drop any home invader on any drug. Dead.