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Home Defense, Geek Style?
Yo Maing writes "So my mom got lives alone, and got her car broken into last night. We have a motion sensor light in the driveway, and the car has an alarm but apparently both of these deterrents were ineffective. Crime has been rising around her neighborhood, and only action the police can take is to file a report. So I ask you, Geeks of Slashdot, what tricks do you guys have to defend yours and your loved ones homes against crimes like this? Not looking for anything that would get someone injured, but more in the area of detection and repulsion. Anyone have a holographic Yeti generator to scare away intruders? :)"
If you don't have any pets, consider getting a dog.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
i'm sorry to hear that :(
first problem is that you think a motion sensor light will do something. it won't.
secondly, i think a car alarm should do something, why didn't it work? was she not home? could she not hear it? if you tell us, we can find a solution for it.
oh yeah, get one of those steering wheel 'clubs', they help deter criminals (at least from stealing the car)
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
My cousin in Texas has outdoor motion sensors around his house, hooked up to a PA system than when activated, play a recording of a pump shotgun being cocked. It sounds real as hell, and you can't really tell where the sound is coming from.
It sounds like you're concerned primarily with property crime, yes? That's actually pretty darn easy to prevent if you think about it logically. Don't leave anything in your car if you park it outside. Keep your garage door closed even during the day so people can't see in. Plant thorney bushes under the windows. Put up a couple of flood lights to take out the shadows in your yard. Keep your yard neat so it's obvious somebody lives there.
In terms of detection, nothing beats a well-trained dog. Train 'em to give a couple of barks whenever someone enters the yard (although just a couple so it doesn't get irritating).
This isn't a complicated problem, but as with a lot of things the best solutions are the obvious solutions.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I believe ThinkGeek has an interesting motion-sensor device that can auto-dial a phone in the event it detects something...unique approach and potentially very useful.
I know nothing
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I just bought a new house. Because it's our first house-house, I can't wait to finally build something I've been thinking of for a while.
A sentry gun.
Ever since playing Half-Life (oh hell, ever since watching Aliens) I've been intrigued by the idea of the sentry gun. With recent advances in electronics, it's easier than ever to build something like this.
Here's the plan, I'll use an electric actuator or pneumatic cylinder to pop it up out of the ground (when a motion sensor that covers the front sidewalk goes off) and unfold (using stepper motors or heavy duty servos controlled by an OOPIC programmable microprocessor) to aim a...
well...
I haven't figured out if it'll be a paintball gun (with human firing only, of course) or just something menacing that LOOKS like a machine gun) that'll use a CMUCam (which automatically tracks motion in one of its modes) to keep it pointed at anything moving in front of it.
I've done other robotics projects before, I really like the idea of all the neighborhood kids staying away from crazy 'old man Hallert' and his scary robo-house.
Kinda low tech, but post a target like this in your window.
Why is this moderated as funny?
I've lived in an area so bad, that pizza wasn't delivered after 4 pm there. Sure, we could have sued, but I wouldn't blame them.
We were never robbed. Our immediate neighbors were. The thugs and gang bangers all knew that our "redneck" guns were a hell of a lot bigger than their little 9's. Worked for us.
(Oh, by the way, we're not white either. I refer to myself as a redneck more as an attitude than skin color).
-Put a mannequin in the passenger seat (dressed, of course).
-Wire up a camera to the motion sensor in the driveway. You'll
catch the person(s) breaking in. Also, set the camera, if
possible, to put time & date stamp on the photo.
-Wire a barking dog to the motion sensor in the driveway.
-Put up a fence around the house, with a gate to get in and out
of the driveway.
Think deterrence, and capture, instead of bulletproof system.
While living in downtown Miami, my passenger-side window was bashed out one night at a time when I lacked the funds to replace it.
Nearly every night thereafter for several months, there were intruders into my vehicle. Bums slept in it, random shady passersby stuck their heads in for a look just in case anything good might have been forgotten there; the crappy broken CD player was ripped out of it (I should have thought to stick a little post-it on the thing that said 'only the radio works on this one, please ignore') which sucked because it left me to drive in silence (aside, of course, for the blaring wind and driving rain which couldn't be helped.)
I was living, at this time, in an apartment directly above the busy street (Biscayne & 24th, for those familiar) on which I left the car parked, and became obsessed with running to the window to see if anyone was rooting through my poor little car, and dialing 911 and giving them descriptions of the people in the car right then.
Anyway, I finally solved the problem (until I was able to replace the window, anyway) with a home-made, zero-cost, silly-as-fucking-shit system of my own device: I ran a piece of twine down from my window and around the opposite side of the car, such that it was tied to the inside door-handle of the passenger side. That way, if the passenger door were to be opened, the bag of loud things I tied the other end of the string to would jingle! Ingenious, I know! I did this every single night.
Sure, the system could have been circumvented easily enough, but it wasn't! My car was never entered by another single foreign body. Which leads me to the MORAL OF THE STORY:
Don't shy away from doing silly shit like this, because it doesn't even matter whether it would work or not: it's the psychology of the thing that's important. If you make people feel like they're being watched--especially if you're able to make them feel like they're being watched by a crazy, potentially violent person (as I no doubt did and possibly was)--then they will leave your shit alone.
Insightful as all get-out, I know.
Art Schools Dietzilla
We had an attempted break-in this summer, and man did it freak me out. They didn't get in, but I could see the handprints on the windows they had tried to open. I called the police.
When the cop arrived, he pointed out a few things that he said could make the house more inaccessible, but he said that in all his years of investigating break-ins that he's never seen anything taken from a house with a dog. Not a fuzzy laprat -- a dog of 40 pounds or more. In fact, he mentioned that the people across the street from me were broken into that night and had some cash and jewelry stolen. They don't have a dog.
Then, a week later, I received a packet from the local police department, about 50 pages or so on how to protect your home. It included some very useful information. It showed the differences between cheap and useful locks on doors and windows. It showed how thieves try to circumvent most common types of doors, windows, and locks. It covered security lighting, alarms, realistic opinions of subscription security services (i.e. waste of money), landscaping considerations and patio furniture considerations.
So, rather than ask a bunch of tech nuts, just call your local police department and see if they have such a packet. As much as we hate cops when we get speeding tickets or raided for warez ops, when it comes to protecting your family they're generally willing to help.
Any marksmen knows that once you aim a gun at a person, you may as well shoot AND that if you shoot, you're going to kill and can't assume or hope otherwise.
It was the first lesson my father taught me when I learnt how to use a gun. Anything else is just a television fantasy.
I've no gripe with owning a gun and using it for defence, but please don't kid yourself into thinking that a rifle will be less likely to kill.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
I'll admit to a little intentionally provocative language... :-)
Yes, I'm not American, I'm Canadian. No, my taxes aren't higher than yours (lower than a lot of U.S. states) when health care is reckoned in. I am also someone who has never been in debt, always worked hard and smart, kept out of trouble. It sounds like you are someone I would respect immediately. I've done a lot of volunteer work and seen how there are folks who are unlucky and folks who are leeches. The leeches are less dangerous, sometimes even productive, if you keep them (minimally, but adequately) fed and sheltered and get them professional help. Despair is a horrible motivator for ill deeds...
I think you and I are actually nearly in perfect agreement. :-) Please, don't mistake my compassion for the unlucky and the leeches as entirely wide-eyed kindness. I just think it leads to an overall cheaper solution, one with a lower stress-cost on society.
Maybe I've also just got the happy feeling that my taxes are, on the 99% whole, well spent. I try to keep an eye on that...
Yeah, and if the thief got nuked, your friend would have been liable.
:P Told them I'd make any statement they wanted once I was allowed to talk with my lawyer -- why do you need an attorney, they asked, unless you are guilty...well if I'm not being charged, let me go...if I'm being charged, I think I need to talk with someone. And thats how the entire conversation went...for 5 fucking hours.
I say this after being interrogated for 5 hours because I booby trapped my lil' Triumph Spitfire several years back when I was in college.
I had gotten a removable cd player from a friend that owed me money -- he pulled it out of his car and said it was collateral. Turns out, he took off the week after that and never came back. So I had to figure out how to put the thing in my car and with the help of a friend that was an EE major...I don't think they were intended to work without the cage, but we got it working and build a new nonremovable enclosure for it and popped it in where the radio should have gone.
Spitfires are convertibles and the locks never worked, so with the help of the same friend, we worked on a trap. Got two frames and embedded razor blades at a 45 degree angle inward on both sides. Very easy to put your hand in, but pulling it out is a little difficult. For added effect, we tinsnipped the blades to be a bit more jagged.
For the final portion, Mike hooked in a charged capacitor to a bar in the middle...slap your hand up against it without discharging it and you are going to have a nasty shock. Most likely try to yank your hand out...hmmm...see where I'm going with this?
Not less than two weeks later I come out to my Triumph to see the leather pulled off the front of the radio (I did try to conceal it by pimping out the console in leather -- looked really nice). and my radio was half pulled out...and a pool of congealing blood on the passenger side seat and floor.
Turns out some neighborhood kid tried stealing it and ended up at the hospital (which was only 2 blocks from my dorm). There was still some skin on the blades...when I removed them (I started freaking out because I knew the possibility that this would come into use, but didn't think about what would happen if it was used).
A few minutes after trashing the razor'd frames I get a knock on my dormroom door from the police asking me some questions.
For the next 5 hours I was interrogated about trapping my vehicle and if I knew it was illegal. I claimed ignorance. One cop tried being the good guy while the other was the asshole. The good guy confided to me that in his day he too set some 'nigger traps'. His words not mine. I found it pretty appalling as most of my friends at the dorm were black including the EE that helped me set the trap. C'mon, he said, I'm a good ol' boy -- you can tell what you did. I simply told him I was going to file a complaint about his use of racial bigotry and that he shouldn't be a cop and that the fact that the video camera in the back of the room with the taped over record light was visible recording as you could still see the light and I thought his captain should know about this. A thief is a thief and I've had far more white people fuck with me than blacks ever have...so he really pissed me off with this line.
His mood changed and the asshole cop came back with the boys mother. The 'boy' was 17 and it was said he almost lost his hand (doubtful) and that he had to get his arm required 60+ stitches and some vascular surgery on his vein. Poor baby...fucker tries stealing from me, and he is being coddled while I am being interrogated. Fuck him and fuck his mother...I told her point blank I hoped he did loose his fucking hand and maybe he could see what it really is like to go without for a while.
5 hours of this alternating between police officers. it was bullshit. And it was 8 years ago, so I'm well past the statutes of limitations on this as charges were never files and I never made a statement
The fuck
So much for that theory.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Reduce the gap between rich and poor
I'm rich you Insensitive Clod!
Reduce the incentive to steal to support drug habits
How do you think I got rich you Insensitive Clod!!
Enough with the jokes..
* Reduce the incentive to commit crime by reducing the factors that force people into desperate poverty, like making medical care universally available.
What percentage of crimes are committed by people in desperate poverty? I do not know too many people in my area that are in desperate poverty but the crime rate is average. The people that stole my car stereo (and got caught) were not in desperate poverty. The teens that robbed my neighbors house were not in desperate poverty. They just happened to be the previous occupants and still had keys to the garage. I'm sure the freaks that batted my neighbors mailbox was not done by someone in poverty. A LOT of crimes in the suburbs are NOT committed by people in desperate poverty trying to get a quick fix or get enough money for breakfast. They are crimes of oppertunity committed by short term criminals as they grow up and mature..
You can put together a home video security system on the cheap if you can hang a webcam somewhere usefull. I'm running Suse 9.1 on a Celeron 433 with a measley 128MB of ram and a software called motion that does motion detection and can save video or individual images to disk (or off-site) when it does.
When I travel I have the webcam pointed at the enterance and setup to ftp any captured frames to another server. When I'm home I put the software in streaming mode, point the webcam out the window and broadcast my view:
http://astroturtle.dyndns.org/
This won't prevent your mom's car getting broken into but I'll give you some ammo to hand over to the cops!
More linux video resorces here: http://www.exploits.org/v4l/
Good luck,
--
Luis Esteves
http://www.astroturtle.com
--- http://www.astroturtle.com
Well, not what you might expect, but it seems to me being a geek is also questionning the conventional way people solve problems.
You alluded to the context- your neighbourhood's crime rates are rising. I haven't looked at criminology data in an organized way, and not recently, but I encourage you to do so. There are a few things I have heard about that seemed quite promising- e.g. community gardens encourage people to be out and about where they would be more likely to notice suspect activity (not sure if that's necessarily accurate, but it seems like a good deterrent, especially as most small B&Es are made by people within a short distance of their residence). Traffic calming also sounds intriguing, as they also make for more active neighbourhoods and slower getaways. Leaving only 1 or 2 exits out of a suburban area also increases the psychological pressure on intruders.
You might also have immediate causes to the crime wave that aren't being dealt with by the police- gangs and/or increased drug use. These can be sometimes addressed by neighbourhoods and congregations in a more tactful way than police can- although requesting more visible presence can do wonders.
All this of course doesn't negate the need for a good alarm system and/or a dog. I would however steer clear of guns- if it's a young gang member trying to get quick money for his next hit, they're more likely to escalate if they see their victim has a gun. No amount of stuff is worth risking life and limb.
Information: "I want to be anthropomorphized"
Asnwer this then: 1/5th the gun deaths in Canada compared to the US. We watch your shows, we listen to your music, we buy the same cars, food, etc. Except we have very strict handgun laws, and you don't. We even have the same % of rifle ownership as the US per capita, its just the limited access to handguns and assualt-style semi-automatics that makes up the difference.
As for criminals being afraid of armed citizens, I am too -- and I'm not a criminal. That statistic has no relevance.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
Its the Japanese student incident. Pity this home owner didnt have a hologram wookie...
.44 Magnum-carrying Rodney Peairs. Yoshihiro, thinking he had
found the party after all, stepped towards Mr. Peairs and said, "
'We're here for the party' ". Webb Haymaker then found himself
standing over his dying friend, Yoshihiro Hattore, a victim of
unintentional homicide."
Baton Rouge, Lousiana--October 17, 1992--8:30 P.M
"A Japanese exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori, was searching for a party he had been invited to. Thinking he had found the house in which the social would take place, Yoshihiro knocked on the door. Not knowing that they had the wrong house Yoshihiro and his companion startled the proprietor. After having the front door shut in their face the two boys began walking back to Yoshihiro's car. Yoshihiro Hattori and his friend, Webb Haymaker, then turned back towards the house upon hearing the carport door open behind them. Instead of seeing the party's host, these two boys were greeted by a " 'Freeze' " and a
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Sorry, I was wrong earlier today, used up my allowance of 'wrong' so I'm just gonna have to be right on this one. I'm sure you understand.
Texas Penal Code Chapter 9 Subchapter D Subsection 9.42 says (and I'm quoting) : Aww hell, read it yourself. Scroll about 3/4 the way down, look for '9.42. Deadly force to protect property.'
Long story short, it's not a myth. Fun fact - it doesn't even have to be your property. Watch a purse snatcher take a random woman's purse, if she screams for your help you are legally authorized to shoot him to death and recover her purse. Check out PC 9.43, sub 2A (also in that link.)
You would be awed by the different circumstances under which you are legally allowed to kill a man in Texas. Your life is going to suck for a while if you do, and you may need to retain a lawyer - but when push comes to shove if you were acting in good faith, have a clean record, and were protecting yourself, your family, or your personal property you will get away with it.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Here in Georgia, my neighbor explained to me that it's unlawful to use deadly force on an intruder unless the intruder has a deadly weapon in his hand (eg, a handgun).
Simple solution: my neighbor has *two* guns.
One shotgun for shooting the intruder and one small handgun (purchased on the steet with the serial number filed off) for placing in the dead intruder's hand before the police arrive.
And canada hasn't the death penalty. All EU members havn't also. I think this is even more important issue.
Even if you take all the other (very important!) arguments aside and only consider the "detterence efficiency":
Criminals get really nihilistic if they know their goverment is also.
Read "The Failed Experiment" by Gary A. Mauser. Studies have shown that while "gun violence" per capita may be reduced "violent crime" in Canada, England, and Australia have significantly risen since enacting strict handgun laws. "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." -Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria "Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used, and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to keep and bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." - Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey, February 1960 issue GUNS magazine.
Mini cameras are cheap and easy to hook up to an old computer. for under 500 bucks you can have a 360 degree in car camera system that delivers the video wirelessly to your home or apartment from the parking lot/street. Use a computer hooked up to a power converter all concealed in the spare tire compartment of your trunk.
If you have significant dough rolled into your car audio system, consider creating a massive short circuit to the components when your equipment is removed without authorization. This could simply be a battery hooked up in reverse triggered by a pressure switch on your speaker box or head unit. before the unit gets completely removed, the hidden battery sends a charge to the components rendering them uslessless. Trust me, thieves will completely destroy your car to get out the electronics. Its cheaper for you to allow them to easily removed completely useless stuff, than to make it so they have to pry your dash apart. AND THEY WILL PRY YOUR DASH APART IF THEY HAVE TOO.
I have seen thieves tear through the back seat when people have thier trunks bolted shut. I have also seen thieves completely destroy components they can remove in anger.
Regardless of what you do, the most import step you can do to safegaurd your investment is to INSURE it. You can get an extra rider on your home/auto insurance to protect expensive items. Insure thoroughly, it is just stuff, you can replace it.
The best insurance for your valuable data is daily off site back ups. If all else fails keep your data in a different safe than your finances. How many thieves expect 2 safes in a non-mansion?
Looks like it is time to replace your Personality Module. You are a bit to clingy, guess I better replace your fuser to
Simple Low-tech solution to fend off an intruder:
Wait for somebody to install ADT in your neighborhood. ADT will then provide marketing materials to everyone in the neighborhood. Cut out the ADT logo and paste it on your window. Viola, no burglers. Remember, perception is reality.
Do get the dog. Others posted that, I am just saying do it.
Get home security stickers. You know, the protected by ADT kind. Buying the system is optional however. Monitoring will let you know you have been hit, but the big deterrent is simply the idea that the system is there. Place them and the yard signs in obvious places.
Use outside lights that are on all the time. Lighting your home up costs a bit, but nothing says go away like a nice clean home that is well lit.
Make sure the place is clean and sharp.
Start or participate in a local neighborhood watch program. These things are pretty cool. You get to know the local folks. Everyone takes turns just keeping an eye out. We have regular people who will walk around the block every so often just to see what has changed.
Meet your neighbors. After you get to know one another you can better watch for changes or people that are not supposed to be there. Also it's nice to have somebody to tell when you are not going to be home for a while.
Along the clean and sharp line, step away from the house and look at the neighborhood. Whose house would you hit? Do those simple things that keep your house at the bottom of the list. Make sure there are no easy temptations. Sometimes it's a slippery slope with minor property crime. A couple of successful hits on a particular home will make the perp more comfortable. Do not encourage that.
Use house timers to vary the interior lighting in the evening. Again, this costs a bit, but does a lot to keep you at the bottom of the list. Change is bad for planning crime.
Put a little radio or television somewhere and leave it on where it can just be heard outside in the evening, but not annoying to your neighbors.
There is no real security. If somebody really wants to hit your place they are going to be able to do it. The key is making them consider another option.
Blogging because I can...
About 95% of the posts are about guns, and people wanting others to know they have a clue or two about them. intresting..
The camera idea is good only to ID the perp, and is the solution I would suggest if using a gun is not an option for your mother.
I have an old SGI Indy which runs capture upon movement software (securitylite, its free at freeware.sgi.com). When it detects movement it will start to capture and page me via text msg. When I get the page, I can load a page hosted on my G5 which will allow me to view a real time qt stream from its camera. As this is happening, the Indy is sending frames to a remote ftp server (just in case it is stolen). The set up is simular to what I have been using since 1995, I'm sure there are several windows apps which will do the same and more.
it won't prevent anything from happening, but we'll have a better idea who to look for.
And you haven't read the second amendment or other documentation from the time it was written well enough if you think it has anything to do with the states forming militias. At least you're better off than John Kerry, who somehow found the word 'hunting' in the Constitution.
wire the ignition coil to the ignition key. make sure mom uses gloves before starting said car.
This message brought to you by Jack Schitt's Previously Shat Shit
http://johntitor.strategicbrains.com/CopyrightProo f.cfm
This prediction was made in late 2000, when bush just got elected probably.. so either that guy is a genius, or he is telling the truth
"...Civil war in the United States will begin in 2004 or 2005, as the result of increasingly oppressive police state tactics like warrantless searches and other violations of American civil liberties. It will become common for people to have their doors kicked in and homes violently invaded by police looking for evildoers. The Gestapo-style oppression of innocents by an increasingly oppressive and murderous government will be worst in the cities, so many people will seek refuge in the countryside, but police will soon enough seek them out there too. Civil war will emerge as a more or less continuous series of military sieges and confrontations resembling the Ruby Ridge and Waco police massacres of 1992 and 1993, and it will begin by 2004 or perhaps 2005 (it might not be obvious in the beginning what's actually happening). As time goes on the civil war will become more and more a continuous conflict between paranoid government forces headquartered in the cities, against perceived or imagined threats in the rural civilian population. The American government will wage war against its own citizens, winning most of the battles, but the battling will drag on for years. In the nuclear war of 2015 our cities will be primary targets, so the civil war will end then in favor of the rurals when the government and its domestic armies are destroyed. In this way the nuclear war will be regarded by the survivors as a good thing..."
You will need my home defense system detailed above =)
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
now, be do have our fair share of murders and stuff (Approx. 60 murders in a population of 4,5 million) but remarably few of them are done with guns. On the other hand, we hav A LOT of MP3s (sub machine gun, full auto), AG3s (Assault rifle, full auto) and Glocks in private homes due to the national guard. But I have never, ever heard of a case where someone has picked up thir rifle to scare the thief away. There are several reasons: If the thief is armed, there's a chance he'll assult you and not run awa since he thinks attack is the best defense. You might end up killing an unarmed person, that is murder unless you were defending yourseld. (note to texans: shooting a garden gnome thief in the back is not self defence). If you detect the thief, the odds of hum bolting away is a lot greater than him attacking you, since it will make him face potentially more problems.
Not those little Canadian geese, the ones with the three foot long necks (I can't remember what they're called. Damnit. Someone help me out here). I have a friend who lives in a... bad area, and trust me, NOONE messes with their three geese. Those suckers will A) Wake up the entire neighborhood B) Rip off a finger C) Crap on your shoe and D) Go for the gonads, all within ten seconds. They're kind of messy, but trust me, nobody is messing with them.
As much as I hate to admit it, booby traps are illegal, and for good reasons. As the article stated, firefighters or other emergency personnel who may have had a legitimate reason to enter the premises would have been at risk too. I do think that the judge's conduct was outrageous and I hope some sort of sanctions can be brought against him. People who go out of their way to stand up for the rights of criminals against their victims in cases like this are scum.
who's going to defend us against the cops. I recently had a cop DRAW HIS PISTOL ON ME because I didn't want to listen to his lecture about why he was blocking the road, and instead decided to turn my car around
And just how did your gun ownership protect you? Did you then draw your weapon on the cop? Were you successful in neutralizing his threat?
Or are you saying you retreated and will deal with the situation from ambush next time? Because it's obvious that whoever draws first has the upper hand.
What the parent poster is implying is that owning a gun is less important than it is for the criminal to think you do.
;-)
Therefore, I would suggest doing as follows:
Get a nice NRA bumpersticker and a Beware of Dog sign. Note you don't actually need to have a gun or a dog to make this effective... If you put the bumper stickers on your cars and the sign on your window, it might help a bit.
As a bit of a joke, she could get a toy poodle
I have used similar techniques when required to protect my environments. For example, once I had to go away for two weeks and was unable to lock my door in an area where breakins occur sometimes (though relatively infrequently).
I moved the computers to the back room and covered them, and placed a desk right across from the door. On the desk I placed such books as "The Satanic Witch" by Anton LeVey and an open printout of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" in the original Middle English open to a random page (assuming that a burgler wasn;t likely to recognize it, and to add to the air of scary ritual, etc). I also placed a clay chalace with a bit of dried dark liquid in the bottom and some other sinister-looking stuff.
It was a lot of fun. For better or worse, nothing came of it.... The idea was to make anyone who entered the apartment feel uneasy and encourage them to leave as fast as possible without taking anything. It should be noted that breakins in that area were usually drug-related (as in involving drug use just prior to the breakin) and such people might steal stuff, but did not generally steal valuables. For example, I knew of someone whose toothbrush was stolen....
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Switzerland: Every citizen between 18 and 40 is required to have a gun in their house. Gun deaths are near nil.
"If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards."
you all modded the parent up as funny, but really you should have modded her up as informative. It isn't the act that sends you to jail, its the intent. Just like an insurance claim - if you light your curtains on fire from your hand, it is arson; if it is from a candle, it is an accident. dousing your couch with lighter fluid and lighting it up, arson - f"falling asleep" with french fries cooking in the fryalator on the kitchen counter, accident - albeit with plenty on stupidity. Insurance companies pay for accidents, not arson. its all about intent. you go to jail for murder, but not necessarily killing someone.
So if I break in with a Barney suit on, it's okay?
You have no idea how dangerous that would be. I'm sure you've seen the human silhouette target used for law enforcement training. One day officers busted up laughing, amazingly there were no accidental discharges, when one guy hung up a purple Barney silhouette target. Those targets were pretty popular for a while, especially with the officers who had young kids.
Try searching the BBC for "crime rate". There's far more about crime reductions than increase in crime.s .pl?scope=newsukfs&q=crime+rate&go.x=&go=go&start= 2&go.y=&tab=news
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/result
Here's at typical one
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3808323.stm
Talk about fun with statistics. The disputed notion that violence in the UK, Australia, Canada "has risen significantly" since enacting stricter laws, even if it's true *and* even if there's a correlation between the stats and the laws, means what? The number of annual gun homicides in those countries could rise %10,000, and still not match the amount of dead in the US.
If you really want to reduce overall crime, try having a halfway decent educational system. That way the kids don't grow up to get their doctorates in the prison system.
And if you really want to preserve freedom and prevent arbitrary government, preserve free speech. Citizens with guns have absolutely no chance against the arms and tech the police and the army now have, anyway. All that can really go up against institutions is solidarity and truth.
Seconded. I had one as a small kid, and the most dangerous thing about that dog was the tail - right at head level. That was until some guy decided to pull a knife on my mother. 65 pounds of claws and teeth.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
I learned this living in San Francisco for 5 years. I had a Jeep - over that period of time they broke into my vehicle over 100 times. That's no exaggeration, its actually a conservative estimate.
They would steal anything greater than or equal to the value of a matchbook.
They cut the windows, stole the battery, keyed the sides, pissed on it, cut a tire, broke the interior locks, and broke an egg onto it -- it was a brand new jeep. The city itself helped me out by writing $3000 in tickets.
The ultimate defense was to leave it with the doors unlocked, with all essentials locked into the trunk.
It would be nice to claim the high ground and say it was a turn the other cheek method, but actually it was just the path of least resistance, and incidentally the most effective.
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
> use guns for protection from criminals more than 2.5 million times annually.
If you look at Kleck's numbers, they don't add up.
Kleck's survey reported that 8% of defensive gun uses involved the target being wounded or killed. With Kleck's estimate of 2,500,000 DGUs per year, that gives us 200,000 DGU-caused firearm deaths or injuries per year.
Studies have shown that approximately 23% of firearm injuries are fatal. Accordingly, Kleck's survey numbers imply that DGUs account for 46,000 killings by firearm per year.
However, the total number of non-suicide firearm deaths per year is only 20,000.
We're left with only a few possibilities:
1) DGU gunshot wounds are vastly less lethal than any other gunshot wound. Unlikely - bullets are bullets.
2) DGU-performing people are very good at hiding bodies. Unlikely.
3) Kleck's survey numbers are unreliable.
Occam's Razor points very strongly at that latter choice. Kleck's survey produces numbers that do not match reality; ergo, Kleck's survey is not reliable.
By contrast, the government's National Crime Victimization Survey suggests that about 100,000 DGUs occur each year. At an 8% hit rate and a 23% fatality rate, that would give 2,000 defensive firearm killings per year. That's still 10 times what the FBI cites the number as, but is quite close to Kleck's own estimates.
Why is Kleck's survey result so unreliable? Consider what is meant by "defensive gun usage": any time the presence of a gun - even if not shown - makes the owner believe a crime or attack was prevented, that's a defensive gun use.
The last time she had a bear nosing around her yard, my mother threw a rubber boot at it to scare it away. According to the methodology used to define defensive gun usages, this would count as a "defensive boot usage" against the bear.
Virtually anything would have worked to scare the bear off; had the boot not been available, there still would have been no bear attack. Self-reported "defensive gun usages" suffer from exactly the same bias and flaw - people report protecting themselves with a gun when either:
(a) there was in reality no protection needed, or
(b) any of a number of alternative techniques would have defended the person just as well.
For example, consider this "defensive gun usage" story from a similar survey:
`The police called. The alarm in my building went off so I went there to shut it off. Two men were outside my building, so from my car I shot at the ground near them.'
That's self-defense? Who's to say those two men hadn't just stopped for a smoke? Similarly,
A 58-year-old male is watching TV with a holster strapped on him. He tells us, `I was watching a movie, and he (an acquaintance) interrupted me. I yelled that I was going to shoot him, and he ran to his car.'
This is a defensive gun usage? This is the kind of "self-defense" story that gets multiplied by 10,000 by Kleck to estimate the number of DGUs per year? No wonder his numbers are off.
(source)
The logical flaw is similar to the famous anti-tiger stone ("this stone repels tigers from my lawn; I know it works because I haven't seen any tigers here in downtown Springfield in the last 10 years") - whether or not a gun has made them safer, participants in this
In regards to Australia, those gun-laws were brought in after a schizophrenic who had not been taking his medication went to the Port Arthur historical site 1996 and opened fire with an automatic weapon.
He killed 35 people and injured 22 with only 64 rounds. It was because of this single event that Australian gun owners were forced to hand in their automatic and semi-automatic weapons... most of which were kept by farmers for hunting pest animals.
Doesn't really seem right, does it?
You know what would scare me away if I were breaking into a place?
Mirrors on the doors.
We used to have a huge mirror on a door in the hall. One night I got up to go get a drink, and for some reason someone had shut the door. I saw my reflection coming towards me in the dark after rounding the corner and nearly passed out from the shock!
~Ben
Well, I didn't see this mentioned by anybody: Rubber balls out of a shotgun. Somebody said rock salt earlier and got modded 5: Funny. WTF is that?
Here's a webpage that sells a number of 12 gauge rounds: http://www.ammoman.com/webstore_12GA.htm
Shipping with him is great, and the prices (at least on the other stuff -- I don't buy enough 12 gauge loads to know) is very well priced.
You've got plenty of suggestions on how to DETER people away from the residence. Motion sensor lights, dogs, stickers, etc.
Once they're in your house it's a whole nother matter. It's nice and quaint that you don't want them to be injured. Bust into the area where I'M sleeping for the night (this goes for when I'm on the road) and odds are injury will be the least of your worries.
I'm sure every gun hating hoplophobe on Slashdot is going to call me friggen Rambo for this setup, but here's what I run:
Remington 870 (cheap, and with the synthetic stocks and rubber recoil pad very managable) -- if you can find one get a smooth bore barrel in 18-20". Odds are the off-the-shelf stuff is going to be 20". Stick with that. I load with 4 rounds (pretty limited mag) of 000 Buck. I do NOT keep one in the chamber myself BUT if that was my primary HD (Home Defense gun) I sure as heck would.
On top of that I keep a good pistol at the bedside. I actually tend to change this out now and again with various models as it depends on what I'm practicing with most at the time. However, that's kept "Condition 1" -- one round in the chamber and safety on.
Explanation:
Shotgun is there in the event that I get some kind of advanced warning of an intruder. My door is solid steel and the deadbolt is pretty danged solid. Odds are I'll hear you banging on it a bit. In that event, shotgun comes off the floor and a round goes into the chamber. Time provided the spare round goes into the tube and I hunker down behind my bed for cover and line 'er up on the door. Oh, yes, I live alone. Whole situation changes when you've got kids, but since you're writing and your mother lives alone I presume you're all moved out.
If you get in instantly (window crashes, or door takes one solid whack) I'm just rolling off the bed and grabbing my pistol.
Now, if I wanted to take a "feel good and don't hurt anybody" approach I'd do the following:
870 stocked with 2 shells of the rubber shot stuff. One IN THE FRIGGEN CHAMBER! Here's why: Presuming you have a house of reasonable size it will NOT be immediately apparent which room is your mother's bedroom. Racking that shotgun, while it MAY scare them off, will only cause them to draw their pistols and proceed accordingly. No need to give them a head's up. Behind those two rounds of rubber balls keep some 000 buck shot. If they're still advancing after 2 rounds of rubber balls (presuming they DIDN't shoot you mother while she wasted valuable time with a less-than-lethal-hope-this-works method) then hopefully the 000 buck'll do the job and make them STOP!
You don't shoot to kill. I don't train for that. You shoot to STOP. Maybe the rubber balls will work. We KNOW the 000 Buck works (or 00 Buck, suit to your tastes)
Ammoman offers a variety of them. When you see "Tactical Law Enforcement" next to the names dont' be afraid. That that really means is "docile, won't rip your shoulder off loads only good for maybe 25 yards against human targets" -- which is EXACTLY what you want when arming a woman.
20 gauge is suitable also -- but I'd stick with a pump for reliability.
I'm a geek, but there's no way in HELL I'd be able to sleep at night if I told my mom that I thought her best bet was to sit there with a media player hooked up to a computer and motion sensor that'd play the sound of a shotgun racking if she died. No thank you.
A lot in life boils down to what you would REGRET MORE later on the down the road. I wouldn't want to be the guy at my mom's funeral thinking "Man, I thought that
HA! It'll be a short trial, and a short sentence, and even less time served.
I want to live in a place where people who enter other people's homes to steal their shit don't make it out alive.
If we're going to imprison so many people, we may as well make them work for us too, prison should be more than waiting to get out, it should be either school, work, addiction treatment, or labor.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
- His car, a Holden HZ sedan, with the door open; and
- His steering column partially disassembled; and
- Traces of blood and hair on assorted knobs and corners under the dash and on the door; and
- No car thief.
You see, 105dB at 3m in free space equals 117dB at about 40cm, which was the approximate distance between the screamers and the thief's ears as he lay in the footwell jiggering the ignition switch on the steering column.This is in a mostly-enclosed hard-walled space, which has to be worth at least another 12dB. And there were two of them, so add another 3dB as icing on the cake, draw a line, 132dB.
The threshold of pain, for reference, is 120dB.
If you're going to bother building a car alarm, get it right. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I live in Houston. 3 years ago, I had gotten up at around 3am to pee. I heard something in the garage, thought it was raccoons from the bayou that would come in through the cat door now and then. I looked through the porch window, and saw someone working the hinges off of the back door into the garage. My wife and young son were inside. I grabbed a pump shotgun, loaded with 00 shells, stepped out of the kitchen door to the backyard, aimed the weapon at this guy, told him to step away from the door and get down on the ground. He stopped with the crowbar in his hand, turned towards me and started walking. I -told- him if he didnt' stop, "I swear to God I'll kill you". He didn't, and I did. Later, one of the cops looked me in the eye and asked me slowly and pointedly "were you in fear for your life". I said that I was, he kept writing. Later I was no-billed by a grand jury. I found out that this guy had been in prison, (Huntsville) and was out on probation for felony assault...and had a record of all sorts of charming behavior. On one hand, I wish the entire thing had never happened. On the other, I'd shoot him in the chest again without a second thought. If someone had leveled a shotgun at -me- as I was tearing off the door that leads into the garage of his house (the interior door then leading into the house from the garage is a flimsy panel door secured by a hook) -I- sure as hell would stop. I will never, never rid myself of weapons that kill at a distance as long as there exist destructive, dangerous people like the guy whose life I ended.
I'll go out of my way to help people when I can, I try to avoid confict when I can. I'm not a member of the NRA. All someone has to do to avoid my shooting them is not break into my home when my family is inside...and -then- refuse to back off when confronted with a weapon. It's that simple; It doesn't have to be over-analyzed or debated endlessly.
If someone breaks into my home I have no idea what their intentions are. Are they trying to steal my personal belongings, or are they threatening my family? Just the fact that they have broken in already shows a complete disregard for the law or any vestage of respct for anyone other than themselves. Am I supposed to ask them "Pardon me Mr. Thug, are you just going to take some stuff or are you hear to hurt someone?" Oh wait, they'd probably lie, if they answer me verbally at all. And yet >I am the sociopath because I don't want to see someone in my family hurt or killed.
As the saying goes, if you "Don't start no trouble, there won't BE no trouble". I didn't ask for the clown who snatched my wife's purse (with her asthma inhaler in it) to come take from us. We were too broke at the time to replace that inhaler. Had I been carrying a gun I would have shot him. Had my children not been between me and him I would have killed him with my bare hands, I don't need no stinking gun.
Yet all you "gun grabbers" can do is whine about guns when I can kill someone wiht a pencil. I notice that gun control didn't prevent the 9/11 hijackers from taking over multiple air craft and murduring thousands of people who had done nothing to them. I also notice they didn't use guns. Do you get the picture yet or are you still determined to try to force the facts to fit your world view rather than adjusting your world view to fit the facts?
"Like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master."~RAH
In Australia, at least, a "Beware of the Dog" sign is a major legal liability, unless your dog really warrants it.
You are effectively saying "My dog is dangerous and I know it" and the first person it bites for whatever reason is going to have that much more chance of suing you.
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
I applaud you.
:)
It always amazes me that people can promote victim disarmament laws in the face of stories like this. Unfortunately, these rarely make mainstream news, and then usually only when a prosecutor has his panties in a twist and wants to fry someone for defending their life with deadly force.
Unfortunately, there will probably always be rabid victim disarmers out there. All of those people out there who say "think of the children" are the same people who are so irresponsible that they would rather leave their children ignorant of something to be hurt by later (like not teaching them about sexual matters) than to educate.
Last I checked, firearms have been a part of American life from the get-go, almost exclusively as a TOOL. There was no such thing as a higher incidence of children shooting themselves or others than for any other age category. Children, up until not too long ago in the scheme of things, were taught how to handle a firearm safely and effectively. Almost all of the new problems we have today stem from a lack of BASIC education. Ignorance of a firearm is no excuse, unless you happen to be of an age where you can't make that decision yourself. Then the fault lies ENTIRELY with your parent/guardian.
The media, those who would like to increase the power of law enforcement, or bolster their political career with empty promises (New York City/Washington D.C./Detroit/Chicago will be much safer after this ban takes effect!) like to paint a different story, but the truth of the matter as that the vast majority of firearm owners act responsibly and the vast majority of firearm uses are defensive. The number of private uses of firearms to prevent crime, without a shot ever being fired, dwarfs the law enforcement and criminal uses.
Fortunately, once the victim disarmers disarm themselves by law, they won't be able to force their views on others anymore. They'll be the ones without firearms.
My brother and I both had one, and they would not stop barking if a cop or park ranger tried to talk to us.
They can sense the "copness" - the implied threat.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
i live in a house where we had six cases of arson in two years. This stopped after i installed webcams in the central lobby and at the backdoor.
I have a 50 line Perl-Script to archive those images for 24 hours and delete them afterwards. In cases something happened, i convert one hour of images (~7.000) to a short movie using OpenSource-tools.
I informed and got an endorsement from every appartment owner in the house and posted a note to the doors.
Since then: nothing ever again happened.
Downside: Some neighbours asking me for images to proof another neighbours did this or that (usually putting a bike in front of a door).
Regards, Martin
Almost all dog attacks are the result of poor training. Dogs know real agression when they see it, but untrained and poorly trained dogs will attack for reasons other than self defense.
Of course, they're still capable of making mistakes... but they are quite good at reading intent.
You're cherry picking. I live in Zurich, Switzerland, and when I mention that firearm proponents in the U.S. use Switzerland to promote gun usage, they always laugh. Those assault weapons are under lock and key, as well as the ammo. You might say they could still be used in defence, but since they're property of the army that would have serious consequences for the gun owner. The result is that the guns are NEVER used for defense. Further, the rest of continental Europe also has low crime rates and very strong gun-control laws. Why does Europe have such a low crime rate compared to America? It's an enormous question, but I think it has more to do with the distriution of wealth. Europe is much more socialistic than the states. There's almost no homelessness in Europe, and the poorest people here still have dignity and a chance to succeed. Universities are free, as is health care. Look deeper into the issues. You're smart enough, and the issues are complex enough to deserve it.
not 4000-year old policies promulgated in middle-eastern nomadic herding societies
If you're making reference to Judeo-Christian laws, I think you'd better do a little more research.
The Hebrews were one of the first races to promote literacy and education. By 13, you had to be able to read, or memorize historical texts, and explain the deeper issues involved, in order to be considered an adult. They had one of the first written languages which didn't have a word-to symbol relation (I believe it's called a semantic language).
The Hebrew law forbade bribery of it's officials, which may not have stopped it from happening, but was leaps and bounds beyond any contemporary society (and something our current society could learn from).
The Hebrew law had a concept of personal responsibility, in everything from census (everyone paid the same amount during census-taking, regardless of social status) to property (owners were held responsible for the acts of their animals, if they had prior incidents to show their propensities - think of all the serial dog attacks, and how reasonable that seems).
Now, the penalties may have been more harsh than we'd like to see in modern times, but we have better resources to both know what some of the sources for some of these crimes are, to better methods for rehabilitating them. But the Hebrew system was both more consistent and more balanced than most other ancient cultures, which tended to follow the Golden Rule - whoever has the gold rules.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
"No citizenry armed with small arms alone could ever hope to stand up to the full might of the US military."
Absolute nonsense.
No standing military can or ever has stood up to the might of a fully armed and resistant population.
And the US military is no exception.
Your tanks and jets mean nothing if your drivers and gunners and pilots are shot on the way to their vehicles.
Not to mention their commanders.
One percent of the population of this country, armed with pistols and long arms, would quickly possess any number of antitank weapons, explosives, Humvees, anything they can operate without advanced training (and some things that they have actually had advanced training in - since there are lot of EX-military around), that USED to belong to some moron in the military.
The US military is GETTING ITS ASS KICKED in Iraq - and is heading for a full-out military defeat in that country. Only the restraint of Ayatollah Sistani and several of the larger tribal heads has prevented it from occurring thus far - for reasons of their own. Screw up those elections in January and see what happens. I predict the loss of several thousand - even ten thousand - US troops within a couple of months of the outbreak of mass national resistance and the result will be the evacuation of Iraq by the US leaving behind billions of dollars of US military equipment that I'm sure the Iraqis will find a use for. Not that this won't cost the Iraqis another hundred thousand lives, but they'll pay that price to get rid of the US IF they have to.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Only if they're trying to repo a stereo or television from the rental place by breaking in your front door.
Trespassing is defined by entering into the domicile in question by forceable means or without prior consent of the owner or occupant. Even if you leave all of your doors unlocked, if someone steps through that door and you weren't expecting them, you have the right to shoot. This was all made possible by what's also known as the "Make My Day" law, a nod to Dirty Harry. Many southern states with dense cities and high transient populations enacted this law awhile back.
Personally I see nothing wrong with it. If someone breaks down my front door at any time, and doesn't shout POLICE WE'RE COMING IN, then they're catching a slug somewhere in their person. Anyone who is willing to commit such an entry surely knows the risks they face, particularly in states like Texas where gun ownership is high.
Is killing another person for breaking into your home extreme? Well, that depends on how much you value your own and your family's life. I'm no gun nut, and don't like guns persay, but I feel that the law gives me the right to defend myself and my wife, and if a criminal will most likely be armed, I have no choice but to arm myself in kind. Not arming myself would be a failure of duty, a total lack of self preserving responsibility. I couldn't bear to think of myself or my wife getting shot in our home without having a chance to fight back or win.
I dunno. I find a fuel pump kill switch, in conjuction with an alarm system, and provided the switch is hidden properly, is a good deterrent.
They can turn over the engine a million times and the car won't start. They're so uncommon that thieves, after spending the time to bypass the alarm, are likely to give up and move on before someone spots them. The amateurs are likely to think the car's go severe engine problems and is hard to start. The trick is finding a good spot to hide the switch - needs to be completely out of sight, protected (hard to dig out), and, preferably, a key-based switch.
I'm seriously tempted to rig up an interior alarm siren after reading this thread though. Just... don't want to set that off accidentally... nice battery-backed-up unit, so if they cut the leads the thing keeps going.
There is a point where enough time has passed that the thief will cut their losses and move on rather than risk continued attention.
It should be noted that "Beware of dog" signs on your property are a serious legal liability in the United States should you happen to own a dog and it ever attack someone. Lawyers say you're actually better off without having the signs if you actually do have a dog, because having such a sign implies that you are aware of the possibility that the dog may pose a danger and you can be charged with criminal negligence in many states because of it.
What I used to have were a few window stickers on my car that I got from police friends. Things that suggest an affiliation or friendliness with the local police departments or other law enforcement agencies. Mine were for supporters of Colorado State Troopers and the NRA.
Personally I think the law enforcement ones are a little more effective, because I've had a few friends with just the NRA stickers on their cars have their cars broken into on several occassions. I suspect maybe the criminals are hoping to find firearms to steal.
Best of that type, if you could get any, might be to try and find some kind of federal law enforcement stickers. FBI or U.S. Martial Service would probably be the best deterent of that type.
Keith D.
How about a bunch of halogen lights hooked up to a motion sensor?
If that's not enough, set them to strobe at about 10-30 Hz. Causes the human nervous system to wildly malfunction, inducing what is essentially an epileptic seizure in anyone.
Blind them with *science* !
P.S. For those who feel they must use a firearm to defend their homes: Sellier and Bellot make a variety of "less-lethal" shotshells. Now you can use the same rubber bullets the riot cops do!
I've learned the HARD way my black lab would take care of business in the event of a break-in.
/never/ put on a leash, was about 20ft behind me peeing. He saw what was going on, and within about 2 seconds was right in front of me facing the guy, SITTING DOWN, looking up at him. He did nothing more than let out a bit of a growl and show his teeth. The guy backed away slowly, and then bolted. My dog watched him run and did nothing. Once the guy was > 100ft away, my dog went back, and continued to pee.
:P
My dog is the biggest, suckiest, little wuss in the world. Loves everything that moves, greets everyone with licks, kisses, jumping up (despite my training for him not to) and everything. But if you come in the home when I'm in bed and I don't know about it, he will eat you.
2 years ago, at my old place, my dog had his own couch. He slept on this couch nightly. The couch was in the path between my bed and my computers (on another floor).
One morning, my pager went off, a network had stopped responding, and I have to investigate. It was about 3am, and my eyes hadn't adjusted to the light yet, so I didn't bother turning on any lights in my path between my room and the basement.
I got down there, where the dog was, and it was PITCH black. No matter how good your night vision, you weren't seeing ANYTHING. As I rounded the corner from the stairs into the basement, all I heard was a low-pitched growl and the quiet sound of a dog walking towards me very slowly (he desperately needed his nails cut)... it didn't even sound like my dog. I turned around, and said, "PUPPY ITS ME!" Upon hearing that, he came over, expected a quick petting, and then went back to sleep. I was so proud of him that day.
Aswell, if I'm not home and my girlfriend is, if any other male comes over to visit, the dog will instinctively ensure that he is ALWAYS between my girlfriend and the visitor. He will not allow the male to get between her and him.
My girlfriend's father came over to visit, and told me all about it. He couldn't understand why the dog wasn't as genial as he normally was when he visited, and why he wouldn't leave her side. I explained.
And to top it all off, I have grown up with labs all my life. I don't think I'll ever own any other breed of dog, they're SO intelligent when they need to be, but they're such lovable morons when they don't. They're great, and they never let me down.
One night, when I was about 17, I had come home late one night, and sat down at my computer to read my e-mail. At this point in time, I'd already dumped my wallet, keys, etc onto my desk, and had nothing on me. My lab started whining that he wanted to go for a walk. Whilst walking him -- this was about 1 or 2am, a guy in a trenchcoat approached me. He got about 4 feet away from me, and pulled a knife. He said, "give me your wallet." I told him I didn't have it on me. I honestly didn't. He started threatening me, saying he was going to "cut me up". My dog, who I
Needless to say, that night, when we got home, I fed him almost an entire ham out of the fridge.
I have a friend in Houston who also confronted a man breaking into his house. He also had a pump-action shotgun. However, in his case, the sound of the pump-action terrified the would-be intruder who took off and ran before he even had to fire a shot.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
I have an idea that most career criminals don't have the faintest clue as to who Kubrick is...
As you totally gloss over all the extra medical problems that purebreeds are prone to.
Not to mention the fact that there are tons of people out there breeding dogs who don't have a clue, and are only doing it for the money. It's very easy to get AKC paperwork for dogs, and therefore sell AKC registered puppies. Too many people think this is some kind of guarantee that the puppy will be healthy and free from problems.
A good breeder screens their animals for breed-specific problems. A good breeder also won't be selling their dogs in a parking lot or sending them to a pet store.
Another factor: Canadian cops don't screw around. My wife's cousin is a cop, and during some training met a group of Canadian cops. The Canadians don't worry about the 'rights' of criminals as much as the U.S. does.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)