{"id":2165,"date":"2019-05-01T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wideners.com\/blog\/?p=2165"},"modified":"2023-06-16T10:57:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T10:57:27","slug":"the-best-home-defense-situational-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wideners.com\/blog\/the-best-home-defense-situational-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Home Defense: Situational Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home Defense Guest Writer: Kenzie Fitzpatrick<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bad things happen to other<\/em> people, right?\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s what I always thought, what I told myself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reports of crime and catastrophe seem so far away on the news or in posts on social media. Those things couldn\u2019t possibly happen to you. Until the day they do. Reality comes crashing in and in a moment, you\u2019re in a situation that turns your entire life upside down. <\/span><\/p>\n

How do you react? What do you do? Everyone thinks they are prepared, that they know how to handle it, until they are in that moment of total chaos. That\u2019s the thing about chaos, you can\u2019t control it. You\u2019re just along for the ride. It\u2019s up to you to survive, to trust your instinct, change, adapt and overcome the threat in front of you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Home Invasions Happen Every Day<\/h3>\n

I got too comfortable. You do that when you\u2019re 17 years old, living in a nice house, with protective parents who own firearms. Nothing can happen to you in your safe space, right? It was a naive idea that I believed in. Then, I watched it shatter, like a rock going through a glass window in front of me.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Someone knew exactly where to climb a fence and break a kitchen window to gain access to my home.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a day like any other day. I scurried off to work that morning. As usual, I was the last to leave the house. I reflexively locked up and headed out. My mind was already counting down to the end of the day. I got off around 3 p.m., and headed home, pulling into the driveway a few minutes later. <\/span><\/p>\n

I remember unlocking the front door with my key only to realize the lock wasn\u2019t moving. <\/span><\/p>\n

Something felt wrong. I pushed open the front door and walked into the house, something was missing\u2026 a TV set in the living room. I remember feeling uncomfortable, but not really registering what was going on. I walked to my bedroom, things were missing; My TV and MacBook Pro I got for Christmas barely a month earlier, were gone. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everything suddenly closed in around me, it felt like I was reacting in slow motion, but I was running and moving fast. It was really happening, those bad things that always happen to other people were taking place in my house. <\/span><\/p>\n

At that age, I only shot guns on hunting trips. I didn\u2019t know either the code to the safe or who else was in the house with me. I had a purse in my hand to defend myself with. The only thing I knew to do was run. <\/span><\/p>\n

I ran straight out the front door, I made it into my truck, and drove to the closest parking lot I could find. My heart was racing. Now what? Who do I call? <\/span><\/p>\n

I dialed numbers, first, to the Escambia County Sheriff\u2019s Office and second, to my dad. I heard his voice and the reality of what happened hit me, I came undone. The adrenaline and stress of the situation were more than I could bear on my own. <\/span><\/p>\n

I remember my dad saying he was leaving work immediately and was on his way to get me. I remember him telling me to stay in place and not to go back to the house under any circumstances. It seemed like an eternity until he showed up. I kept replaying his words, remembering him saying how it was going to be okay, the most important thing was that I wasn\u2019t in danger or harmed. That\u2019s all he cared about. Those words comforted me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are We Really Safe At Home?<\/h3>\n

Looking back, the important thing to remember about that day is that it could have happened to anyone. It did happen to me, but I am not special. There was nothing special about my house, nor the possessions in it. From the road, it looked just like any other house in the area. <\/span><\/p>\n

The break-in was just like any other home invasion, it took place between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., statistically the <\/span>most common times<\/span><\/a> for a break in to occur. If it could happen to me, it could happen to you. In my case, the person who broke into my family’s home was never caught. They got away with stealing our personal items and our sense of security.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surviving A Home Invasion:<\/h4>\n
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Having an emergency plan and practicing it with your family is a vital part of protecting their personal safety.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hindsight is always 20\/20. You can\u2019t tell yourself what you should have done in a situation if you\u2019ve never planned for it. You don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know. \u00a0Looking back now, with that knowledge, I do know what I would\u2019ve done differently:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Have a plan. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the break-in, my family has implemented a lot more safety features in our house – an alarm, cameras, lights, and most importantly, a \u201cwhat if\u201d plan. Beforehand, we had never talked about what to do in an emergency situation as a family. I wish on that day I had been armed with a plan and a defensive object to make me feel safer. I wish I had a neighbor or someone in close proximity to call who was at home, as my dad worked pretty far from the house.<\/p>\n

Now, I keep my phone much more accessible when I am coming or going from a location, so I can make that call again quickly if I needed to.<\/p>\n

2. Get out of the house.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

We found out much later, after the investigation where the point of entry was. The police believed it was someone familiar with our home, possibly even someone my family knew. They knew where to climb the fence, which door was vulnerable, where to throw a rock to break a window, and where valuable items would be. Even though I had a bad feeling when I opened the front door, I didn\u2019t stop to think about my personal safety. It\u2019s common for people to forget to lock doors, but I knew I had never done that before with my daily routine. By entering the house, I put myself into real danger. Without an equalizer like a firearm, there\u2019s not much an untrained, 120-pound, 17-year-old girl could\u2019ve done to defend herself against a potential attacker.<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t accept being a victim.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

I finally got the nerve to drive back to the house once my dad called and told me he and the deputies were there on the scene. The police asked me to give a statement. I completely shut down. I’d never felt so vulnerable in my entire life. I felt violated and struggled to face the reality that my home was no longer a safe and protected space.<\/p>\n

I remember not wanting to talk to anyone, friends, family, deputies, no one. Shockingly, I didn\u2019t even want to see or talk to my boyfriend who had just driven hours to see me. Not only did I let a criminal\u2019s actions get in my head, but I also let it destroy my peace of mind.<\/p>\n

4. Talk to someone about the situation.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

My dad is a social worker, he\u2019s a professional who deals with crisis on a daily basis. Yet, at that moment, he was the last person I wanted to talk to. I knew deep down I wasn\u2019t handling the situation well, I buried it and refused to talk to anyone about it. I had to be tough, I had to keep going. That was a mentality I adopted, as a female with almost all male relatives. I was the girl who went hunting and camping in the deep woods. Toughness was who I was, it was my response to everything.<\/p>\n

In reality, that attitude didn’t help me or the situation at all. If something traumatic happens in your life, I recommend getting out in front of the issue. I think if I would have talked to someone about it then, I could have let it go sooner and it wouldn’t have let it bother me for so long.<\/p>\n

You Are Not A Victim<\/h4>\n

That Friday is a day I\u2019ll never forget. It changed me, but for the better. I refuse to ever let myself be a victim again. It put me on a path. I\u2019m so thankful that I\u2019m an American citizen and I have the Second Amendment as a right. I feel a little bit safer with peace of mind knowing I can defend myself if I need to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lightning Strikes, Twice<\/h3>\n
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Are you prepared to evade a threat and defend yourself in a high-stress situation until the police arrive?<\/p><\/div>\n

The odds of being the victim of a robbery are about <\/span>1 in 500<\/span><\/a>, if you\u2019re unlucky enough to have it happen twice, you better have learned something the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2015, I was living in sunny Tallahassee, FL. I graduated from college a month before and was living on my own in an apartment. It was a Wednesday night, at 8:24, when lightning struck twice and a convicted felon picked my apartment and tried to break in my backdoor.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was watching television and heard a doorknob rattling. It wasn\u2019t my front door, it was the backdoor that I never used. <\/span><\/p>\n

I got that feeling, the one I had years before when I tried to use my key at my parent\u2019s house, only to find the front door already open. My apartment was not in the best location, but I had learned that safety is more of a mindset, rather than a physical space. I muted the TV, quickly got up from the couch, and retrieved my Glock 17 loaded with 9mm hollow points<\/a> from my bedroom. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was happening again, the bad things that only happen to other people, they were right outside my door and trying to force their way in. The adrenaline hit, except this time it was different. This time I was 22 years old, had my concealed carry permit and was not going down without a fight. I had training, I had a plan and I was not willing to be a victim to the chaos. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With my phone in hand, I called 911, but I also had a backup plan. <\/span><\/p>\n

I called two friends who worked close by at the local shooting range I am a member of. In the 8 minutes I was waiting for officers, the suspect moved and was now attempting to force entry through my front door. I was no longer in fear. I yelled commands through the door, telling the suspect to identify himself. The situation suddenly de-escalated, the suspect stopped trying to enter the apartment and realized he\u2019d been exposed and verbally confronted. <\/span><\/p>\n

My friends beat the officers to the scene and arrived with reinforcements to keep the suspect at the scene as the police were on their way. One of my friends, who is now a police officer, stayed outside with the suspect while the other came inside to check on me. Afterward, the suspect backtracked and made up a story that he was looking for a friend who previously lived in the apartment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once officers arrived, they flanked him on all sides, patted him down and questioned him on what he was doing there.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Felon About Town<\/h4>\n

In the police report, it was recorded that the suspect, had recently been released from prison and responded to the incident location allegedly looking for a person with the alias of \u201cCrystal.\u201d The officers noted that he was in their database as a convicted felon. Thankfully, whether his story was real or not, no weapons were found on his person, despite his prior criminal history of violence. The Leon County Sheriff’s Office booking reports, available to the public, showed that the suspect had several criminal charges in January of 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n

These are the charges found on that booking report:<\/strong><\/p>\n