A pair of robbers meticulously planned a robbery in Ohio earlier this week, but the one thing that didn’t account for was the homeowner’s loaded weapon.
From the sound of things, the robbers actually had a pretty good plan. First, the thieves broke into a homeowner’s car in order to get access to the garage door opener. They used that to gain access to the garage and the main house. They even went so far as to squirt WD-40 onto the garage door hinges to prevent it from squeaking. From there, they split up. One of them went downstairs to handle the male homeowner who was asleep on the couch while the other thief went upstairs to deal with the man’s wife and daughter.
According to reports, the husband woke up at 6:45 in the morning to a hand over his mouth and the thief saying, “Don’t talk; we just want your money.” Well, the thief should have added “Don’t grab for your gun, either.” The man had apparently slept with his revolver. The homeowner grabbed for the firearm, which provoked a brief fight. The homeowner was able to fire off a shot at the thief.
That was the thieves’ cue to get the hell out of there. The homeowner reported that the man he was fighting and the thief who was upstairs both fled. It is unclear whether or not the bullet hit its mark. There was blood on the scene but it could have come from the homeowner, who was injured during the scuffle.
It reminds us of that old saying: No plan survives first contact. The thieves either did their homework and knew how to break into this house, or they were clever enough to adapt to the situation and make the best use of the tools that were available. All the planning in the world can’t account for gun owners, though. It doesn’t really matter how clever you are – nobody is going to outsmart a bullet.
This case was actually rather fortunate – you know, as fortunate as home invasions could possibly be. The homeowner was down on the ground floor, so he could fight the intruder without a very high risk of hitting his wife or his daughter. He didn’t have to worry about accidentally hitting his wife or about the thief taking his family members hostage. He opened fire first and made his intentions pretty clear.
The bad news from this story is that the thieves are still at large, but the good news is that the family did not suffer any life-threatening injuries. Also, the thieves may think twice about invading another home. Kicking down a door and getting scared off by a gun is one thing, but coming up with an admittedly clever plan and having a gun owner totally ruin it in about two seconds is probably demoralizing.
