Curse

Gauwyn Vorec · May 13, 2005, 06:57 AM // 06:57

Ok here's what went down not more than 45 minutes ago.

I was on my computer, doing whatever it is I do, when my wife tells me that she can hear a baby crying and some shouting outside. All I could hear was our damned dog barking. So, I go to the patio door to see a guy getting into a car, and a woman trying to get in as well (both in the driver side). She's screaming, "Please no... he's trying to take my baby!"... this is where he throws her back and I run and get my shoes on and grab my .45 pistol.

I run outside to see him throw her back again and decided to pull my pistol from its' holster. I shout at the guy, "HEY, what the hell is going on here?!". The woman says again, "He's trying to steal my baby"... so I run around the car and while aiming the pistol to the side, I tell him to, "Get the f*ck out of the car". He doesn't move, so I chamber a round, and repeat the order. He then gets out, and I yell for him to lay down on his face and put his hands behind his back.

He does all this, while the woman grabs her baby from the car. I lean down onto the guy, and grab his hands, while holding my pistol to the side and tell her to call 911 (apparently someone in the complex heard that... to explain later).

The woman then tells me to let him go. I ask him, "If I let you up, will you do anything stupid?". He said no... and I let him stand up. He then got into the car and said, "I'm going to get that f*cking baby" while driving off.

We talked to the woman a little bit to make sure she was ok, and then I went inside with my wife. As I was going inside I heard the sirens. After a couple minutes I saw a patrol car drive up, and went outside to tell the story. I was met with a pistol and a flashlight:

"Let me see your hands!", I complied, and followed the woman's orders to walk forward, turn around, get on my knees, while she searched me. She then started to ask me about the fight with my girlfriend... and I started to explain to her that I wasn't the guy, and that he drove off. She then asked about the gun, and I said yes, I did have the gun and that it was inside.

Then as this was going on, 5 or so other patrol cars showed up and started searching around. They all eventually got on the same page that the guy had left and that the woman lived on the third floor. I explained everything, and was sent back inside.

A police officer came in shortly thereafter with witness reports, and we started filling those out (while the cop took my pistol for "safekeeping"). Needless to say... in a nutshell... QUITE the interesting and exciting evening.

A younger officer came in to let us know that the man is now going to jail for domestic violence (he came back, and they grabbed him), and he took our reports. I asked him where the gun was, and he said he would go get it personally and bring it back. He told that I was being the good samaritan, and that no charges would be filed against me. He thanked me for the "help" and left.

Commence with the...

... this IS a 100% true story.

Manderlock · May 13, 2005, 07:59 AM // 07:59

dbodenheim · May 13, 2005, 09:39 AM // 09:39

Quote:

He told that I was being the good samaritan, and that no charges would be filed against me.

How typical. Its a wonder know one gets involved with anything anymore.

Jericho · May 13, 2005, 09:58 AM // 09:58

Hey where in the country do you live? I'm amazed they didn't try to slam you with some phoney baloney crap for interfering. In my state there was this story on the news: A man got on a bus and tried to hijack it by threatening the driver with a knife. The driver refused and the man stabbed him, twice. He then managed to get the knife away from the guy and stab him back. The perp then stumbles off the bus, gets in a cab for the hospital, and dies on the way there. Driver gets slapped with huge charges and convicted... WTF?

CrazyGirl · May 13, 2005, 11:14 AM // 11:14

wow...thank god there are men like you to help women in need

Rushing Wind · May 13, 2005, 11:17 AM // 11:17

First of all... I want to give you props for what you did! Takes balls to be a *good guy* when everyone else is happy standing back and sucking it all in.

Its the way of the world sadly. Perp ends up looking like the good guy while the innocent do the time and pay the fine.

In the end these are the perps I have to end up dealing with. I work at a state prison. Yet, in this story, I'm not the hero; my wife is!

It was a couple weeks back while I was working graves. We live in a tight community with houses all around. My wife is a 5th grade teacher and tries her hardest to get to bed early to get ready for her big days ahead each night. Next door one of our neighbors was throwing a party. Thats all fine and dandy until they start *disturbing the peace* while chaos is ensuing well into the night.

I got off the phone talking with her sometime after 10pm that night and I was just hoping everything would turn out alright and I'd see that lovely woman in one piece again in the morning. These are the events that transpired, when she called me around 11:30pm.

She was again awoken by the sound of VERY loud music coming from the house and wasn't sure what was going on but was very upset with the whole ordeal. I just told her to remain calm (easy for me to do since I wasn't there) and to call the police if worse came to worse. We finally hung up and she later told me that a lot of people came storming out of the house shortly after we hung up and one guy started screaming and cursing up a storm at quite a few others. She figured she didn't want to deal with the whole thing and called 911. The operator said they'd have a deputy out as soon as they could. Soon after that the door was shut and the drunkard was left outside ranting and raving at those that were out with him. First, he started cursing and screaming... again. Then he started pushing another guy around and knocked some woman on the ground. He then took a cheap shot and cracked the other guy across the face.

By this time my wife, watching the whole thing, was getting very nervous and called 911 again. They said they had a few deputies on the way and would update them on the situation (since it had dramatically changed for the worse). Not more than a minute after hanging up the cops showed up. The perp took off running and the cops were hot on his tail. Not long after that they brought him up in cuffs and took him away in a squad car. All the normal stuff took place after that.

Our neighbors have no idea who called the cops and probably won't find out but soon realized that their home was not the place to throw a huge party. Since then there has hardly been a peep from them... although we are very nice and well-mannered to them anytime we see them. Gotta love what one phone call will do. Here is to MY hero! I love her... and her example!

fritz300 · May 13, 2005, 11:20 AM // 11:20

Great story ^_^ glad j00 saved teh lady her baby.

DraieGardo · May 13, 2005, 12:26 PM // 12:26

lol Americains and their guns :/

Good Job though, id like to think id do the same if ever in the situation but not many people can say they would put their life on the line untill experiencing such a situation.

Id hate to bring a negative side to this but if that guy was willing to cause such trouble and not worry about the consequences he probelry wouldnt worry about coming back to hurt you or perhaps coming armed incase you should interfear again. I personnaly would be very catious and aware of people around the area for a while and in your case perhaps wear some body protection for abit.

EnDinG · May 13, 2005, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Nice stories.

I guess everyone has that moment where they do something really special that can greatly effect someones life.

*EndEdit*
Was just wondering, but OP, do you ever think that guy would ever come back to your house? Or did you make him fill his pants enough that he wouldn't ever think about it?

portiadude · May 13, 2005, 12:32 PM // 12:32

Darn hard to believe. But if it's true you got balls and did the right thing. I hope that I never will have to do that. But if I ever come in a situation like tht I wish I have the balls to do that.

EnDinG · May 13, 2005, 12:40 PM // 12:40

You know what, here in Canada that would be much harder to do since we are pretty well required to have all rifles in gun cabinets. No firearm is allowed to be just out in the open. Since we aren't allowed handguns it would take like 5 minutes to rush, get the keys, open the cabinet, find the gun, load the gun, and hope it works. LoL.

Between using a blunt object (like a baseball bat) or a gun, the gun will always get a faster responce. I find if someone ran over to me with a bat while in my car, and hit my car, I'd get out and beat the hell out of them and force them to pay for damages. I don't care if I was robbing a bank, with the way law is now, you can sue for anything.

Gauwyn Vorec · May 13, 2005, 03:37 PM // 15:37

Well, you know, I didn't think about whether or not he would come back, or even if he would do anything to harm me. All I cared about was getting in there and stopping the situation. When I first confronted them to see what was going on, he threw her back, and then jumped right into the car. Had she not fought back so much he would have drove off.

I didn't have time to think about what was right, or wrong, or the consequences. All I knew is if I didn't stop him and get that kid back, he would be long gone (and who knows... maybe he would kill the kid).

The thing is, the guy only has himself to blame. He left, and then came back on his own accord to get himself put in cuffs. If he does come back to my house, or tries anything, then I'll be just as ready as I was last night.

I'm actually in the testing process right now for the Denver Police Department here in Colorado... so, hopefully I'll be able to do this type of stuff for a living for EVERYONE.

Dreamsmith · May 13, 2005, 03:56 PM // 15:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnDinG

You know what, here in Canada that would be much harder to do since we are pretty well required to have all rifles in gun cabinets. No firearm is allowed to be just out in the open. Since we aren't allowed handguns it would take like 5 minutes to rush, get the keys, open the cabinet, find the gun, load the gun, and hope it works. LoL.

Now now now, be fair. It shouldn't take that long to retrieve your rifle and load it. If it's a concern, practice doing it (which is a good idea in any case -- a rushed, crisis situation is not the time to be doing something you aren't well practiced in doing).

In general, I'd recommend a good shotgun -- they're the best thing for a crisis confrontation, quick and easy to use. They also look damn impressive, and the best situation is one where the intimidation factor alone resolves it without ever needing to pull the trigger.

ArgentLupe · May 13, 2005, 04:10 PM // 16:10

I apologize in advance for the length of this but couldn't resist getting my 2 gold in.

I used to own a game store and would make a cash deposit every evening. Because of the money and because it was legal, I had a concealed weapons permit and carried a .357 Sig Sauer. So one evening I decided to run a D&D game at my house and invited a few people over after the store closed. I made my deposit and headed home. As I approached my house I see a car swerving and revving it’s engine trying to get around a car in front of it. The car in front is a friend of mine, who is slowing down to make the left turn into my parking lot. The irate driver behind my friend pulls into the parking lot behind him and I pull into my parking space about 100’ away. As I’m getting out of my car, the guy has made his way over to my friends window and is screaming for him to get out so he can kick his @$$. I approach and I can see he guy is obviously very drunk. I ask what the problem is and the guy goes on a tirade about how my friend can’t drive and that he is going to teach him a lesson. At this point the drunk decides he doesn’t need to explain his behavior to me and tells me to FO (If you don’t know what FO means, consider yourself and product of a sheltered life and pity those of us who aren’t

) because this doesn’t concern me. I tell him (calmly and politely) that he really should leave and that this does concern me because he is doing this in my parking lot.

The drunk whips around on me (still a good 20’ away) and tells me that he is going to kill me and starts moving toward me. I reply that it would be a bad idea to do that and unholster my pistol, keeping the barrel pointed down. I inform him that I am armed and that I am now going to go to my house and call the police (I intended to call the police all along, as I didn’t want a drunk on the road. I was just trying to avoid conflict…sheesh). I start to walk again and the guy starts screaming, “You don’t have the [email protected] to shoot me”. He then proceeds to elaborate on how he is going to beat me to death all the while coming at me. At this point I raised the pistol, chambered a round and informed him it was definitely a bad idea. He is maybe 10’ from me by now but instead of stopping he rushes me. In the split second before pulling the trigger I decide to try a less lethal solution and instead, crack him over the temple with the pistol. He goes down mid-punch like a sack of used oranges. I go to my house and call the police and he is taken away in custody.

You’d think the story ends there, right? Wrong.

I was cited for disorderly conduct and public fighting. They were also investigating a weapons charge against me.

I couldn’t believe this. There I was using non-lethal force with a legaly owned and carried firearm in an act of self-defense and I was being fined and faced a possibility of jail time. Needless to say I got a lawyer. My lawyer said it was a clear-cut case and a court date was set. I assembled my witnesses and felt confident that justice would be served.

I was found guilty. As it turns out, the judge didn’t like the fact that I used a gun in my defense. He would have been okay with a chunk of masonry or a baseball bat, but not a gun. The judge didn’t agree with the current laws concerning carrying guns, and felt that an average person had no real need to posses a firearm. The assistant DA even suggested that I should have just beat up the guy. He said that I was to blame for the attack as my desire to call the police was what enraged the man.

My attorney offered to appeal for free.

My next court appearance went much better. I was acquitted of all charges by the judge and sent on my merry way. He did, however, state in his decision that he would have preferred if I had not pistol-whipped the guy, but had used another weapon instead.

Devil's Dictionary · May 13, 2005, 04:42 PM // 16:42

JUSTICE, n. A commodity which is a more or less adulterated condition
the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes
and personal service.
LAWFUL, adj. Compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

This is making me sick and angry. I can't even translate the intencity of my anger in words, although those two cases are not the first I've heard of. Both you, Gauwyn Vorec and you, ArgentLupe have shown courage. It saddens me that modern society gives more previliges to scum.

Shinsei · May 13, 2005, 04:51 PM // 16:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by portiadude

Darn hard to believe. But if it's true you got balls and did the right thing. I hope that I never will have to do that. But if I ever come in a situation like tht I wish I have the balls to do that.

Screw the balls, I'm worried about getting the gun >.<
(no, I don't live in the states)

Garm · May 13, 2005, 08:47 PM // 20:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArgentLupe

I couldn’t believe this. There I was using non-lethal force with a legaly owned and carried firearm in an act of self-defense and I was being fined and faced a possibility of jail time.

And it is also possible the beligerent drunk could have filed a civil suit against you.

Dark as this may sound, you may have gotten off a lot easier if you just shot him dead, and arranged your story to make it seem convicingly that your life was very much in danger. (as told, it was good enough for me, but the courts is another matter)

This whole incident is one of the many reasons I wont own a firearm. Too many potential repercusions.

I've always heard since childhood, "never draw unless you are intending to fire. Don't draw to threaten"

Do you know what happened to guy you dropped? Did they nail him for a DUI, or public fighting/disorderly conduct as well? If not, i'd be mightily torqued.

Gauwyn Vorec · May 13, 2005, 09:02 PM // 21:02

Garm I go by these rules and these alone (I am a 4 year honorably discharged Marine):

1. Treat every weapon as if it were loaded
2. Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot
3. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire
4. Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire

I used each of these rules last night, never once pointing it at the man, only displaying it in a defensive manner, with the purpose of showing the man that I was serious.

I firmly believe that if you follow these rules you can't go wrong. We have an ammendmant that states we have the right to bear arms. I utilized that right in a safe, professional manner.

But, the man was very hostile, and there was no way to know what he would have done with that child had he gotten away. Having a handgun with me last night was in defense... and if used and properly respected, guns can be a valuable tool to survival.

rcol · May 13, 2005, 09:14 PM // 21:14

u rock man

Beer w/Straw · May 13, 2005, 09:27 PM // 21:27

What if he didn't listen and tried to drive away?

Would you have shot him?