Sunday, March 24, 2013

Where Angels Fear to Tread

So, last blog was about the death of my mate when he walked in upon someone burgling his house.  Rather than rehash all my old blog posts I figured this would be a good time to discuss that.

I've had the pleasure of working with and training SWAT teams (usually in executive protection) and even those guys get shot going into houses trying to winkle out a barricaded or hidden suspect.  To try and do so on your own, without training and/or weapons is pure folly.

This is not a criticism of Chris by the way.  I wasn't there and he may not have known the burglary was in progress.  It's entirely possible he walked in on the guy who was waiting for him when he heard the door open.

The point I'm making is, if you come home and see signs of forced entry DO NOT go rushing in to try and find out what's missing, what happened or catch the bad guy(s) as tempting as that will no doubt be.  Back away quietly, call the professionals and await their arrival.

One cool thing about cops is that they love to catch bad guys in the act.  Tell them your house has been broken into and they may not even send someone out to take a report.  Tell them there's a possibility the bad guys are still inside however and they'll be there faster than a rat up a drainpipe.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Take Ten

A lot of these blogs will be from my old self defense blog and I'll update any that require it.

This one was about taking a few minutes whenever you pull up to go somewhere or exit a building etc.  We were taught in the Foreign Legion that time spent gathering intelligence was seldom wasted and that's the concept we're stealing here.

You're exiting the mall for example, stop, take a minute to look around and see if you can spot anything that causes concern.  Where is your car for example and what's between you and it?  What or who is parked next to it?  Is there anything going on you should be bothered by.  I was told a story once about a mother and daughter who walked out into the middle of two gangs involved in a shoot out and didn't realize until they were right in the middle of it.

How about coming home? Before exiting your vehicle stop and take note.  Is everything the way you left it? This saved my neighbor in Wilmington years ago.  She came home and noticed a window wide open and foot prints and scuff marks up the front of the house.

She called the cops - smart girl - and they found evidence of the break in.  She told me later that prior to hearing my presentation she probably would have run in to confront whoever was inside which can often lead to tragic outcomes.

And, just in case you're thinking you'd run in and confront whoever was inside back in Jan of 2011 a friend of mine and fellow Aussie Chris Radok was the first murder victim in Charlotte when he walked in on a burglary in progress.