Home Invasion on CCTV
February 5, 2009. Tucson,Arizona. A homeowner, alerted of an impending home invasion by his security cameras, barricades his door, arms himself and successfully defends his home when four armed criminals attempt to invade his home.
The video the owner caught is incredible. You see a vehicle pull up, and four men run out. One of them is carrying what appea More..rs to be an AR-15 or M-16, a weapon which could be fully automatic. The robbery happened last Thursday in broad daylight at a home on West Vande Loo Street. All the action was caught by the homeowners outdoor surveillance system.
"The victim was able to get back inside his house, close his door, semi barricade it, reach for [a] weapon that was easily accessible," says Pima County Sheriff's Deputy Earl Gieron. The homeowner shot at the suspects. He even put a bullet through the windshield of the suspects car, which is also caught on camera. The four men retreated and took off. All of them remain on the run.
Sheriff's officials say the homeowner has surveillance cameras installed all around his house. Dep. Gieron says, "That was just for his own security."
People living in the neighborhood heard all the gunshots, and saw the aftermath. Some stray bullets even hit a home across the street. One man says, "I was asleep around noon Thursday, and heard gunshots."
Lawrence Cruz lives down the street from where the attempted home invasion happened. "I am very watchful where we live and I think everybody has right to defend their property," says Cruz.
Detectives did find the suspect's vehicle at a home near Cardinal and Valencia, but the four men are still on the run. One of the suspects has been identified as 23-year-old Jesus Mendivil. It's believed he was shot in the arm. The three other men are all described as Hispanic males between 17 and 25-years-old.
Labels: Home Defense
posted by Xavier at 6:45 PM
30 Comments:
Four guys storming into the house in the manner of a raid, one carrying an AR-15? There's more to this story, sorry.
Wow. I'll say this much for the man, he was paying attention and had a plan of action.
Hmmm...
That's quite a "home invasion", Xavier. Four bad guys, one (at least) with an AR-15 or similar weapon?
And the home owner has security cameras?
I think there's a lot more to this story.
Now I'm not saying who are the good guys and who are the bad guys but it's a fact that we have a problem here in Arizona. Phoenix has it worse than Tucson, but no where in the state is immune.
Glenn Beck has something that may, just may be worth considering. See http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/21451/
yeah, I wonder why he was targeted. With what looked like two shots to the windshield, how did the driver not get hit?
That is in the far south part of Tucson and is not an especially wealthy area. Kind of odd the guy was home in the middle of the day. He says he has no idea what they were after..hmm. something doesn't pass the smell test here.
Agreed, there is a LOT more to this. Initial report was he was watching his surveillance system and saw them drive up.
Im going along with the first poster. True "stranger home invasions" are somewhat uncommon. Most supposed victims of this stuff in my area are guilty by association. Drugs, stolen property, drug debts etc. Such a nice camera set up, Im thinking he was expecting this.
As the economy further tanks, this will happen more and more often. Any reader of history should know that, even if they wish it not to be true. At least this homeowner was prepared.
Notice they FIRST pointed out the stray bullets rather than the suspect likely being shot in the arm or the fact that the police have not caught anyone?
One more excuse for the government to take over your "safety" because you might injure somebody else defending yourself.
"IT WILL BE MUCH MORE ORDERED AND SAFER IF ONLY POLICE AND MILITARY HAVE GUNS IN TIMES OF HOOLIGANISM AND ECONOMIC CRISIS!"
I can see the headlines now...actually....I think I just saw one on Arizona television.
I agree with Anon. Saw this last night on CNN Lou Dobbs. AZ police chief acknowledged that this homeowner had a history with illegal drugs. Still, Lou was very pro 2a, which I commend him for.
I would be interested in the "Xavier Thoughts" on this one.
Four attackers, one with an AR-15, ran off when confronted by a single armed man.
Wow. There may be more to the story, there may not be. This is amazing video. We should all be prepared for the worst.
anonymous-- how abou thave some testicular fortitude and use your name.
These sort of breakins happen all the time. They're called criminals
My initial thoughts can be found in this thread at The High Road.
Basically, I don't think we have enough information to draw a conclusion other than the home owner repelled the invasion.
The video is obviously edited. We really don't know how much time elapsed between the time the invaders appeared on camera and the time they exited. It could be a kidnapping attempt, an attempt to rob for jewels, guns, or drugs.
I hate to draw a conclusion without more information. The hasty exit under fire is interesting though.
re: the video quality- you'd be surprised at the quality you can get from cheap webcams. I'm building a webcam-based surveillance system, and the picture is amazing.
In California, drug dealers have responded to raids on the houses they and their associates own, and seizure of the homes by DEA by either breaking in, or violently taking over homeowners houses in a temporary way. They tend to like the nicer places with easy freeway access.
All the buyer traffic is routed to the "drug house for a day" by cell phone. The police show up a few days later, and may find the owners in some combination of raped, dead, or tied up. The DEA then sues the home owner or the estate to take over their house, since it was used as a drug house.
The DEA lawyers really hate it when homeowner is able to defend themselves. It puts them off their game. DEA in Palmdale CA filed a suit against a homeowner who defended himself, but it was quashed because no sales were actually made.
It is such a sweet deal for the drug dealers, DEA, and real estate types who get to resell the house after the DEA seizure, that one would almost think they were in cahoots.
Phoenix Arizona had 559 reported kidnappings in 2008. All where drug related. Per Fox News.
My guess is Tucson is feeling the effects of the Mexican drug trade that is rapidly moving across the boarder due to the fact that Mexico is about to collapse, 18 of its 26 states are ran and controlled by drug lords.
These gangs have set up shop in Phoenix. Mexico City is the number one city in the world where you are most likely to be kidnapped, Phoenix is now the second most likely city.
Goggle kidnapping and Arizona to confirm.
the bullets didn't go though the windshield because it is laminated glass, and is designed to take a lot of punishment. That combined with the angle makes them functionaly bulletproof to everything but AP rounds and heavy calibers.
Shoot for the radiator if you are using a pistol, or the engine block if you have a .357 Magnum or Rifle round. The .357 was created to punch though sheet metal and still crack an engine block back in the 30's to stop the bank robbers with their new fangled auto-mobiles.
Crack the block or perforate the radiator and they go about two-three block max. Then it's shanks mare for them.
FYI: Here's a story from the Phoenix newspaper this morning corroborating the Glenn Beck talk show with Phoenix as the #1 kidnap-for-ransom city in the US, mostly for drug-related issues which, in turn, are tied to our very leaky border to the south. See http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/02/15/20090215kidnappings0215.html
That combined with the angle makes them functionaly bulletproof to everything but AP rounds and heavy calibers.
The Buick O' Truth says otherwise; even the 9mm went through.
I thought the .357 Magnum was the result of Elmer Keith seeing how much powder he could stuff in .38 cases without the gun blowing up and then they lengthened the cartridge case so people wouldn't put it in .38SP revolvers that couldn't handle the pressures.
Plenty of things before the .357 could put holes in cars.
Almost all the Phoenix area kidnapping is "human smuggling" not drug related.
They "coyotes" like to steal each others "cargo".
Agreed on other calibers being able to penetrate cars. Remington/Peters (amongst others) made a .45 ACP and .38 Special 'HiWay master' round back in the day to help troopers penetrate increasingly heavier car bodies. They used 'metal penetrating' rounds that were lightweight but had much higher velocities.
I did like the homeowners shot grouping on the windshield - two shots pretty darn close together!
As far as the 'good or bad' state of the homeowner, he was defending his home against bad guys. Philadelphia cops used to call bad guys killing bad guys in the 70's 'urban improvement'. Its win/win as long as innocents arent injured.
Nice grouping on the windshield. When asked why I need a certain type of "assault rifle," I will point to this video.
What are the odds that the carbine was an Airsoft? Hmmmm.
Anybody carrying an airsoft toy gun into a situation deserves to be shot. As to the: "there's a lot more to this story." No there isn't. If you come to my house with a motley assortment of guns, including an ar-15... Count on facing an Auto-5 shotgun, Loaded up Law Enforcement style, 00 Buck, and Slugs. Those weren't undercover cops, and no matter the guys standing on the social of legal ladder, nobody has any business approaching his castle armed.
ATF learned back during the Clinton administration,that they better be polite on our property. My 62 year old Dad took down two m-16 toting thugs entering w/o permission. The one who found me in the garage had better sense. He found out I was legit, and within my rights, I was making a rifle from a small Mauser action. I had done a few of these, so the ATF at the federal level figured I was doing something wrong, and they were smarting from Ruby Ridge and Waco. The local ATF didn't even know they were there.
I expect that local police, FBI, ATF had some words with them before they climbed upon a plane back to DC.....
Our Police Chief, who actually took a tape away from a national news crew, something the Soviets would never dreamt of doing, was incensed at the blatant abuse of my rights.
I decided to make a bolt-action 7.62x25 bolt action a couple of days ago, and called the ATF to make sure I'm still good.
umm John. More to the story as with respect to the motives of the thugs. They seemed to be after something special.
That's the way I understood it. I could be wrong.
KD, one problem with the Brick of Truth. The angle. They were standing right up against the bumper of the car. This changed the angle of impact, and thus the penatration. Think tank armor, they angle the armor in much the same way a windshild is angled, it make's it functionally thicker, plus the defection is increased. So I would have to say if you were to walk up to a car siting still then yes you could get penetration. Of course I would also like to know what bullets they were using. But as you move away from the bumper the geometry changes against you.
Tom, yes Keith did overclock .38's and every other cartridge he could lay his hands on. Most of the refinment and real world application work was done by Phil Sharpe and Dan Wesson. The only other HANDGUN round that would punch though a car or bullet proof,such as they were in the 30's, vest was the .38 Super. Which was by Colt. S&W wasn't about to lose police business because other handgun rounds (.38 Smith & Wesson Special to give the full name) wouldn't penetrate car bodys. Note that car body steel was quite a bit thicker back then.
Actually with the lighter weight steel they use to day I still say shoot for the hood and radaitor, more chance to disable with less chance of ricochets.
I have to chime in on the "there's gotta be more here" comments. All the intruders attempted to keep their faces concealed. I suspect they knew they were on camera. But, how did they know? Perhaps, they'd done some business at this place in the past.
I suspect they knew they were on camera. But, how did they know?
It's possible the cameras were out in the open. This could also have led to their choosing that house, on the assumption that the guy with the best security system has more stuff worth stealing.
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