Several days ago my husband and I were sitting out on our back deck. He had just gotten off of work and we were just talking about our day. We live in an apartment and behind our building is our parking lot and a very steep road that leads up to more apartment buildings. There are many children, including my own three, that play and ride bikes in this area. As we are sitting there a car comes flying down the hill so fast that the car bottoms out and tears through the parking lot. As the car passes by I yelled out "Slow down!". That's it, two words. Apparently the man driving the car didn't take kindly to being told what to do because he put his car in reverse and slammed on his brakes and proceeded to yell and swear at me, telling me to "Mind my own f***ing business". My husband calmly said that it was our business because we live here and our kids play here. This guy proceeds to yell and cuss me out and then drives off. We then both go inside to mind our own business and relax. Approximately 15 minutes later we here yelling coming from the parking lot. My husband goes to our back door and see the guy plus two of his friends are now outside. My husband goes outside and tries to talk to the guy and diffuse the situation. This guy didn't want to talk and starts coming up our deck stairs all while taking his shirt off. At this point my husband starts backing up towards our patio door which was still open. My husband comes inside the apartment and shuts the door. He goes to grab his phone to call the police when he hears the patio door open and sees this guys to start to cross our threshold.
At this point I should state that we are gun owners. We own three hand guns a .22, a .380 Beretta, a Taurus Judge which fires a .45 caliber bullet as well as a .410 shot gun shell. The Judge is no joke, and my husbands favorite and the closest to him at the time. My husband cocked the hammer and pointed the gun at the ground in front of the man who was entering our home. He informed him that if he took one more step he would defend our home and family with whatever means necessary. The guy stops and my husband proceeds to call 911 and during this call informs the 911 operator that he has a gun pointed at this man and that he will fire if the man comes farther into the home. The man threatens to kill my husband for calling the cops and then turns and runs down our steps gets in his car and takes off, we were only able to get a partial plate number but knew the guy lived up the street. This is where my shock and outrage comes into play. My husband tells someone that he is about to shoot an intruder and it takes the police 45 minutes to get there. And by police I mean ONE cop, ONE! Not the cavalry blazing in all lights and sirens and bullet proof vests like you see on TV or movies, one guy who looked like he was on the verge of retirement. My whole family could've been murdered and this guy would've been heading to another state by the time he showed up. Oh and he was thrilled to be there too. He took down our information and the details of what happened, got back in his car and drove up the street to see if he could find him, he couldn't. He then tells us that there is nothing more he can do, gives us a report number, says a detective will be in touch, and then he leaves. We were dumbfounded.
A couple days later we are outside again and here comes the same guy driving through our parking lot again! This time we got his license plate number in full. My husband quickly calls the police and tells them that the guy is at his house and that we were able to get a plate number. They send a regular uniformed officer, a different one, who comes in and asks what's going on. We explain what happened previously and that we got his license plate number and that he is up at his house now. The cop says that there is really nothing he can do because he didn't originally respond to the first call. He said he would note the report. He then proceeds to chastise me for yelling at him in the first place saying that all this happened because of that. He said that in this day you can't do that because this is what happens.
A few days later they finally send a CSI tech to dust our door for his fingerprints, after it happened almost a week ago. This guy is still driving around my neighborhood and the police have still done nothing. I have a huge respect for the police and what they do, but this has definitely tarnished that. I no longer feel safe in my home or in the fact that the police are there to protect us.
