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1) Here is a Philadelphia news report about a home robbery/murder occurring about 35 miles outside the
city. Some interesting points:
a) Home is in an upscale, low crime suburban area. Large Home is on 10 acres of land and worth roughly $900,000.
b) Killers were in home for several hours --tied up victim's girlfriend and 12 year old son.
c) Victim , however, was a businessman who filed bankruptcy to evade $1.8 Million in debts.
Don Williams
Hi Don, thanks the link.
This is another good example of the difference between
wishful thinking and how events turn out in the real world.
Three big points here people:
1)We’ve said it time and again here in the blog:
Seclusion and isolation doesn’t equal security. If anything, criminals have to
worry about less eyes on them, there’s a smaller chance of someone noticing
them and calling the police and they have all the time in the world to do what
they want with their victims. You know why all these survival retreats have
worked so well so far in terms of security? Because there still isn’t a serious
crime problem in America!
2)They entered through a window. Notice how vulnerable
most homes are. The window was probably opened, they just stepped inside
through it. How many of you lock your front door but keep the back door opened?
Doors and windows should be locked, and you should keep an eye on them when
opening them for ventilation and fresh air. The reality is that most people don’t
have barred windows and armored doors, and that means most people are pretty vulnerable
in their homes.
3)The home owner had guns. Still, guns are a last line
of defense, they are not an alarm, they don’t replace locked doors and windows
and competent home security habits. Maybe if the window had been crashed to
enter and the home owner had reacted fast enough or if he had been carrying his
gun, he would have had a chance to defend himself. If you can carry in your
State, serious gun owners carry at all times, when on the street or their
living room. Especially if your home isn’t hardened for security, your reaction
time gap is measured in the seconds it takes to shatter a sliding glass door
with the butt or slide of the handgun and stepping inside. It’s a matter of few
seconds, not few minutes.
FerFAL
9 comments:
Like most houses in America, there is no fence surronding the house. Also the victims apparently had no watch dogs to give them an early warning nor to scare off the robbers.
This sort of thing is really rare in the philly metro area. It really looks like this guy may have been dirty and owed the "wrong people" a lot of money.
There is a lot to be said for keeping your nose clean. Any large urban area is going to have it's share of organized crime. Lie with dogs and you're going to get fleas.
That wasn't a random attack, he was targeted and his killers knew what they were doing.
1) Re Anon's comment at 12:04pm that "this sort of thing is really rare in the philly metro area ",
it depends on where in Philadelphia you are. The city itself has averaged around 21 murders per 100,000 people in the past decade:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Philadelphia-Pennsylvania.html
(The US average is around 5 per 100,000)
2) Murder rate in outer suburb Souderton, PA near where the reported home invasion/
murder occurred was ZERO for 2007-2009 but then soared to 15.1 in
both 2010 and 2011.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Souderton-Pennsylvania.html
3) Murders per 100,000 rate in Chester , PA --just to the south of
Philadelphia down the Delaware River -- were 64.3 in 2010 and
61.6 in 2011.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Chester-Pennsylvania.html
That ranks with Columbia and Venezuela, although those
violent countries probably have even more violent sections.
http://chartsbin.com/view/1454
4) Similarly, murders per 100,000 in Camden, NJ --just across the Delaware River from downtown Philadelphia -- were 71, 43, 47 and 61 in 2008-2011 respectively.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Camden-New-Jersey.html
5) But go 15 miles northwest of Chester and Camden -- to the middle class Main Line areas like Malvern, PA and Narbeth PA -- and
you see ZERO murders for the entire past decade.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Malvern-Pennsylvania.html
http://www.city-data.com/city/Narberth-Pennsylvania.html
6) Violence is highly localized in the USA -- and tied to poverty.
If poverty spreadsand expands, so will the desperation and violence. And people in formerly peaceful neighborhoods can be easily caught by surprise.
Looks like a hit made to look like a robbery. It’s an odd combination for an asian and a hispanic to be partners in crime. My guess both do dirty laundry for the same boss. That said, I doubt a rural or an urban setting would have made much of a difference. As has been said before, what could have saved this guy would have been better perimeter security and holstered gun on his side.
JAG
Being that Pennsylvania is a relatively gun friendly state, it should have been fairly easy for the victim to get a concealed carry permit. One takeaway from this is that one should always have a gun on one's person while at home.
Also, why didn't the phillyburbs.com give a description of the intruders? If they want leads, it would help if they actually described the perps. All we know is that one was 5'9" and muscular and the other one was smaller. That really narrows it down!
Re RR's question about the failure of news reports to describe the intruders, I believe the problem is "two MASKED gunmen".
Later reports indicate policemen are looking at surveillance cameras in local businesses to see if any caught pictures of the intruders unmasked while driving the escape vehicle.
Gaga and Jag may have a point -- news reports now indicate that victim had stiffed creditors for about $10 MILLION -- including casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City for $1 million. List of possible suspects is long --including US Internal Revenue Service:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20130122_Bucks_victim_had_been__10_million_in_the_hole.html
I wonder how much of his problems were due to gross irresponsibility and how much were triggered by the 2008 financial crash and banks subsequent cutoff of credit to small businessmen.
The sight of him living in that big house must have infuriated some of his creditors. Especially since it suggests he had some of their money stashed away and was using it to continue living the sweet life.
That last hour or so in the garage probably was not a pleasant conversation --he knew he would be killed and would have been reluctant to give up the location of money that would be needed by his surviving sons.
Sounds like a hit. 2 men. They didn't kill his girl or his kid. They did kill him. Guns taken to make it look like a robbery or it was a robbery and they couldn't get him to give up the cash. All around, bad business. a couple of Rottweilers, a fence and a Glock 19 on his side would probably have saved this guys bacon.
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