Three Masked Criminals Cut Power to Florida House, Homeowner Opens Fire (911 Tapes)

Most home invasion stories we come across tend to involve unsophisticated (read: stupid) criminals who take ham-fisted approaches and rely entirely on brute force. It’s rare that you come across criminals who employ genuine subterfuge.

A trio of masked men in Miramar, Florida, used a strategy that you usually only see in the movies – they cut the power to a home and waited for the homeowner to exit the house. Admittedly, it was a clever plan – three grown men with the element of surprise against a nearly blind homeowner. What could possibly go wrong?

The homeowner’s wife, for one. “Grab your gun,” the homeowner’s wife told her husband before he went outside to investigate. “Just in case.”

So, the 55-year-old homeowner did just that, and it’s a good thing he did. The homeowner later reported that he immediately realized something was wrong when he saw that the other houses in the neighborhood hadn’t lost power.

According to the police, the three men charged at the homeowner and attempted to bull rush their way into the house as soon as the man opened his front door. The man’s adult daughter, who was home at the time, recalled that her father pushed his wife into a nearby room and fell backwards, firing shots at the trio of men.

You can listen to the daughter’s harrowing 911 call below. Be warned: things get a little bit tense about one-third of the way through. The caller begins to break down near the end of the clip.

Two of the men fled the scene, but the bullet-riddled one didn’t get very far. Police arrived and helicoptered the injured criminal, Leonardo Morales, to a nearby hospital where he has been in serious condition. Police are currently searching for the other two suspects and have therefore not released the names of the family members.

Well, whoever that family is, it was their teamwork that probably saved lives. The mother reminded her husband to get his gun, the husband protected his family, and the daughter phoned the police. The daughter later said, “It still feels like a movie. It feels surreal. But my father was a hero.” She also wondered, “Why us?”

We have a question of our own: what on Earth were the criminals trying to do? As you may have noticed, we never once used the word “thieves” to describe the criminals, because we can’t be certain if theft was actually their motivation. In fact, it seems like the criminals specifically attacked the home while people were present, and they attempted to overwhelm the man of the household as soon as possible. Was that because they wanted access to the two women who were present? Was this just a particularly ballsy robbery attempt? It’s chilling to think about the possibilities.

And to the gun owners out there, let this be a reminder that you should keep a flashlight or a gun light near your pistol. Having a pistol isn’t going to do you any good if you can’t see what you need to shoot in a crisis situation.