Where is the BACKUP ??

February 10th, 2009

I have yet another unbelievable story for you, submitted, once again, by a USCCA member. Thanks to Tim for reporting the story.

The man telling the story did a great job of keeping a level head, and neither over or under reacting. As you're about to see, it would have been incredibly easy to lose your cool in a situation like this.

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Three days ago, my wife (visiting elderly parents) and I came home from dinner on our normally quite street. As we got out of our vehicle on our driveway I caught movement at the corner of our house and a young lady walked toward me in our front yard.

She said "policia" twice, and stood by my wife. She was clearly terrified, out of breath and kept looking in the direction she had come from, around the corner of our street.

I dialed 911 on my cell phone and walked out to the edge of our yard to get a look down the street. I always carry, at least, a Kel Tec .380, in my strong side front pocket. The woman suddenly took off running out of my neighborhood, and wouldn't stop when we called to her.

Expecting the police to show, I stayed in the front yard and my wife took my elderly parents inside. We "back" each other, so she soon told me she was inside the door and had her own firearm available.

A couple of minutes later a car pulled up on our street and a guy I'd never seen opened the passenger window and asked if I'd seen his wife.

I told him I'd seen an upset woman who asked for the police and that they should arrive soon. I told the guy that she'd left. He looked at me a moment, and then asked, "Is she in your house?" I told him again she'd left, and that he could talk to the police about the situation. He didn't pick up the hint to leave, and again said "Man, I asked you if my wife is in your house?!"

This looked like it was going down hill fast so I told him I was done talking to him, and suggested he leave, or talk to the police when they showed up.

He put the vehicle park, and started to open his door. I got a bit loud and direct with him, and after staring for a minute, he put his car in gear and rolled off with what was a final "Gangster Glare".

He drove back by two times in 5 minutes, both times slow and glaring at my at my front door.
In the next few minutes, several high speed cars arrived, friends and relatives of the guy in the car, and they joined him in the glaring at me at my front door. Immediately after, an equal number of Miami-Dade squad cars showed up.

After a couple of hours of agitated "interviews" at a nearby house, a couple of folks were toted off on what looked like a domestic violence event.

I guess we walked in on the victims "get away", and the perps emotional first moments after their skirmish.

I didn't need the Kel Tec, but it felt comforting to have it.

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There are a lot of things that we can take away from this story. The biggest lesson for me, is to never assume that the person threatening you is alone. So often, I hear stories about an accomplice waiting in the shadows.

But in this case, we have an even scarier situation- where the offender actually was alone, but actually called in back up. The worst part about this, is the offender's backup arrived before the police did (even though the police were called much earlier).

Remember- EVERBODY has a cell phone now days, especially punks like the guy in this story. Even if you DO scare someone away who is threatening you, he may very well call in back up and come back for revenge.

So, call the police as soon as the situation allows, and stay on your toes until they get there.

Stay safe