As a former burglary squad commander who saw thousands of incidents, I strongly agree on both points. I use a very thoroughly designed alarm system religiously, and if I saw any indication of an intrusion, I would immediately back away, find a safe observation point at some distance and behind cover, and call for LEO's to handle it. Being armed, trained, and experienced doesn't make it much less suicidal to enter a building during a burglary alone. In my agency, we didn't allow a single on duty officer to do this either unless it was immediately necessary to preserve innocent life.seamusTX wrote:I posted this because I wanted to show how walking in on burglars is one of the most dangerous things a person can do, even if armed. Doing it unarmed may show incredible guts, but this is a possible result.
Also, IMHO, a burglar alarm has among the best cost-benefit ratios of any home defense mechanism.
- Jim
You're on the right track, but not exactly correct. Folks in bad neighborhoods get burglarized a lot for the little they have.Crossfire wrote:Duh.... Because the folks in bad neighborhoods don't have stuff worth stealing!
Folks in good neighborhoods have a lot more goodies that make victimizing them much more profitable than committing the same crime in less well off sections of town. Many middle and upper class homeowners have the same attitudes as those quoted in the article, and take few if any precautions to discourage crime because they think it can't happen to them. This makes them pretty easy pickins.