It was an ordinary Saturday afternoon and everyone was getting antsy for spring to arrive. My mother-in-law lives in a neighborhood with predominately elderly, middle-class people. The sub-division was built in the 1970’s and most of the families have lived there and known each other since the beginning. It seemed that every other garage door was open wide and the men were tweaking with the lawn mowers and other yard tools trying to get a head start on the chores of spring. When it happened to the couple across the street and two doors down from my mother-in-law.
A nice young man approached the neighbor in his garage and offered to do some household chores at an affordable price. The neighbor was interested as arthritis has made some things a little more difficult to accomplish, especially those dirty windows. The nice young man walked room-by-room inspecting each window carefully and then told the neighbor it would be $15.00 a window inside and out! What a Deal! So of course the neighbor hired the man and his crew to do the job, the young man said he would return in an hour with his crew and get the job done.
An hour later the young man returned with two more men willing to work hard, get the job done and help an elderly family. Once the three men entered the home they pulled out guns, locked the doors and duct-taped the neighbor man and his wife to their own dinning chairs. The three window washers ransacked the house and collected anything of value they could find. Then they searched the neighbor man and found his bank cards, with a gun held to the side of his head the neighbor gave the home invaders his PIN numbers. One of the men left the house and went to the bank and withdrew money from the accounts. When he returned to the house, the three made sure the elderly couple was well bound to the chairs and taped their mouths shut and then left the home, appearing to be window washers.
It took a few hours for someone to discover the elderly neighbors bound to their own dinning chairs, and thankfully both were fine other then feeling completely violated and robbed in their own home. The good news is that no one died during this home invasion and other then the aches and pains that go along with being bound to their chairs my mother-in-laws neighbors got out of this situation alive.
To keep your home and family safe in the event of a home invasion robbery here are a few tips that might protect you and your family:
- Don’t risk your life of the lives of your family members over the loss of money or material possessions. If you find yourself in a home invasion situation cooperate with the criminal(s) as much as possible. Cooperating may calm the invader(s) down and lower the risk of violence.
- If the criminal(s) feel you can identify them it could increase the risk of violence. Don’t look them in the eyes; try to avoid looking at them at all. Don’t let them see you looking at them or appear to be trying to make mental notes.
- With family and friends create a “code word” or phrase everyone can remember which can be used as a signal with each other indicating something is very wrong. If one of your family members or friends happen to call during a home invasion, you it’s possible to tell the invader(s) you’re expecting an important phone call and not answering may cause concern. If you are able to answer the call using the code word or phrase would let the caller know they need to call 911.
It took about a week before the criminals who invaded my mother-in-law’s neighbors to be caught trying to do the same routine not too far away. This invasion team was made up of the amateur type doing this for drug money to support addictions. These kinds of crimes are on the increase in cities and rural communities all over the country. While your possessions and lost money in most cases will be safe because of your insurance coverage, the trauma and stress of being victimized in a home invasion may leave long lasting scars. The important thing if faced with a home invasion is to do what you need to in order to get out alive or without serious injury.
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