Predators often target those they perceive as old or infirm. But as these accounts prove, while a person may look old or infirm, in reality they are armed and ready to defend themselves.
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BARBER SHOP BREAK-IN
When a 76-year-old Hampton, Virginia man heard the sounds of a break-in, he called 911. Officers arrived and took a report, and a cursory search turned up a broken window but no burglar. Police then left the building to search the surrounding area, while the homeowner, an Army veteran, grabbed his own handgun and continued to search the premises.
Looking in a closet in his barbershop, which adjoined his home, he saw a pair of legs visible beneath the clothing hanging in the closet. Startled at finding the intruder, the man fired once, hitting the burglar in the arm and sending him fleeing. The officers searching nearby heard the sound of gunfire and came on the run, apprehending the intruder who was taken into custody and charged with burglary after being released from the hospital.
Source: WTKR-TV, Hampton Roads, Virginia, 12/10/2013
NOT THE FIRST TIME HE’S BEEN SHOT AT
It was a Saturday afternoon in North Palm Beach, Florida when an armed robber burst into a jewelry store wielding a revolver. He headed straight for the proprietor and the two men began to wrestle for the stickup man’s handgun, when the intended victim produced a pistol of his own and began firing at his assailant.
Wounded six times, including four times in the chest, the intruder stumbled to the front door and asked to be buzzed out. The shop owner complied, telling interviewers later, “I was so glad to get rid of him.” Back in the parking lot, the robber climbed into a waiting getaway vehicle, which sped off. Fearing that the holdup man was dying, the getaway driver turned him over to the Boca Raton Police.
The proprietor, an 89-year-old World War II veteran who had seen combat in the Pacific, was wounded in the arm during the struggle. It was the second time he’d needed to use his gun to defend himself against robbers in his store.
Source: Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach, Florida, 8/26/2014
A CRASH IN THE NIGHT
It was a dark and stormy night, but what awoke the 73-year-old Omaha man was not thunder. Hearing the sound of broken glass downstairs and fearing for the safety of his wife, their grown daughter and grandson, he grabbed his Taurus .380 and went to investigate the source of the disturbance.
The homeowner found a grown man climbing through a broken living room window. He fired a single shot, grazing the intruder in the torso, and yelled for him to leave. The intruder climbed back out onto the front porch, where he waited for police to arrive. The homeowner said he appeared to be intoxicated.
When police arrived, the intruder was hospitalized for blood loss due to the gunshot wound and cuts from the broken glass of the picture window through which he’d forced entry.
Source: Omaha World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska, 8/27/2014
GRANNY GOT HER GUN
First came loud pounding on the front door. It was 9:45 on a Sunday night and the 73-year-old Lilburn, Georgia woman wasn’t expecting any guests. Then came the sound of a window breaking, and more sounds that indicated the intruder was now in her home.
Grabbing her handgun and calling 911, she waited upstairs. When the man appeared at the bottom of the staircase and began to come up it, she opened fire with a fusillade of shots, causing him to flee. He got in his car and drove himself to a nearby hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound, where police arrested him.
Source: WAGA-TV, Atlanta, Georgia, 8/22/2014
