Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

My flatmate had a girlfriend
she liked him so much she got him a Mac(that he would pay back)

they fall out

the girl is really pissed and seeks solace in hate, classic...

she's worried he won't pay her back

sends a text "if you don't pay back that much per month i'll take matters in my own hands"

yeah well didn't think much of it, a lot of people make threats like that but usually come to their senses and realize it's childish


But not her(you guessed she is childish)

Knock on the door, I think it's our other flatmate so after waiting a bit just for the heck of it I go down the stairs while my flatmate watches Reno 911 on his Mac


Door opened and surprise surprise, the girl...

with a fat guy dressed in black and another with a half burnt face


so first thing I go for closing the door but they block it, I try to push them back but they're way too heavy for that...

then they go upstairs with the girl while I ponder getting more involved with something that has got nothing to do with me...

they grab the Mac and out they go

Another week end in London!

...Yeah....cool... *slowly backs away towards telephone to call insane asylum*

I'd have had a hard time not losing my cool, but I guess seeing big thugs does have a calming effect.

they looked more like bouncers but as much as I like my flatmate I've learned to assess situations before barging in and finding myself taking sides without knowing

it was a little wounded girl thinking her ex was trying to rip her off, and it was obvious they came just for the Mac and nothing else

My first reflex was to stop them coming in but when I saw the girl I knew they didn't mean business...

"Hell hath no fury" and all that...

Yeah, sounds like you're right.

.45 Navy Colt or a double-barrel shotgun woulda been handy ....

oh yeah, y'all can't have no shit like that, can ya ?

SandRider wrote:.45 Navy Colt or a double-barrel shotgun woulda been handy ....

It would have made a fine substitute for the level-headed thinking which seemed to prevail...

Lundse wrote:

SandRider wrote:.45 Navy Colt or a double-barrel shotgun woulda been handy ....

It would have made a fine substitute for the level-headed thinking which seemed to prevail...

No matter how many Americans I meet in person or "chat" with online, they all seem just a little bit bonkers.

Call the cops and report it.

I was wondering what I'd do if a couple of strange burly men forced their way into my house. I'd probably ask "where to you want me?"

Lundse wrote:

SandRider wrote:.45 Navy Colt or a double-barrel shotgun woulda been handy ....

It would have made a fine substitute for the level-headed thinking which seemed to prevail...

Totally in agreement with the Rider of the Sands on this one...

Forcing your way into someone's apartment is breaking and entering, and although they only took the laptop, there's no telling what else they could have done while they were in there. Of course, I'm glad it didn't come to that, but things would have worked out very differently if two large men had tried to force their way into my apartment.

I like being bonkers.

"Where do you want me?"

"Mmmm... Luv, you'd be FABulous anywhere, so stay where you are for now."

I can vouch for Smug's arsenal.. 3 steps in you would have large holes in various areas of your body.. and thats before he gets the BFG out.!!

Bonkers? maybe, just the way things work in this old red white and blue.

trang wrote:I can vouch for Smug's arsenal.. 3 steps in you would have large holes in various areas of your body.. and thats before he gets the BFG out.!!

Bonkers? maybe, just the way things work in this old red white and blue.

Does this mean you are always armed when you open the front door?

SandRider wrote:.45 Navy Colt or a double-barrel shotgun woulda been handy ....

oh yeah, y'all can't have no shit like that, can ya ?

I knew you'd say something along those lines

inhuien wrote:Call the cops and report it.

thing is it's my flatmate's business really, we are friends but we just met and I hate getting involved in stuff that is not directly linked to me.
I mean how do I know who is right or wrong here?

As soon as i realized they were just in for that stupid computer I decided not to risk my stuff or some form of vendetta(kanly lol)started for the wrong reasons...

no one was hurt and all in all she just came to get back what was rightfully hers


If they had done more than that they would have ended with a fire poker in the mouth!

smugetsu wrote:

Lundse wrote:

SandRider wrote:.45 Navy Colt or a double-barrel shotgun woulda been handy ....

It would have made a fine substitute for the level-headed thinking which seemed to prevail...

...although they only took the laptop, there's no telling what else they could have done while they were in there.

The cases:
1 - Breaking and entering, to steal a few items, homeowner has no gun - a few items are stolen.
2 - Breaking and entering, to steal a few items, homeowner has a gun - very real possibility of violence and death, over a few baubles.
3 - Breaking and entering, to kill or main, homeowner has no gun - certainty of violence, possibility of death.
4 - Breaking and entering, to kill or main, homeowner has a gun - certainty of violence and quite probably death.

Now factor in what happens in cases 1 and 2, when every homeowner has a gun - yup, the criminals will bring guns too, and have them at the ready. Any homeowner who believes he is better of in that situation is either bonkers, or so paranoid (and armed) he is making things worse.

As an exercise, consider how many cases of 'I am breaking into this house specifically to cause violence' actually occur. Only those cases are really improved (if you can call it that) with a firearm...

yup i concur...

I've seen my share of thugs and I don't back down even when it means pain but i need motivation for that...

otherwise I stay clear of trouble as much as i can

I'm just saying that I'm glad it worked out the way it did. Lotek (or anyone else, for the that matter) didn't get injured, and all they took was what (arguably) belonged to the gal. Considering the circumstances, that's the best outcome, and kudos to Lotek for keeping a cool head. Firearm or not, he could have attacked them and hurt them or gotten himself hurt in the process.

Some criminals will bring a gun whether the home owner has one or not. I love the peace-loving attitude that if you just mind your own business nobody will hurt you. "If I don't have a gun, the people that come to rob my house won't bring one." Maybe I'm just cynical, bonkers, or both. Maybe things are different on this side of the pond (gun control a lot less strict, etc) but here that logic just won't fly.

Am I always armed when I answer the door? Depends on whether or not I was expecting the knock in the first place. If it's two in the morning and nobody called first...yeah, I'm armed.

And on a lighter note:

lotek wrote:If they had done more than that they would have ended with a fire poker in the mouth!

I can't be the only one who drew a comparison between Lotek's statement and the statements of Chanilover a little earlier in the thread, can I? No offense to either of you fine gents, of course.

smugetsu wrote:I'm just saying that I'm glad it worked out the way it did. Lotek (or anyone else, for the that matter) didn't get injured, and all they took was what (arguably) belonged to the gal.

I will make the argument here that it is not the only thing that was taken, and something that I think is at the philosophical root of this disagreement about whether physical force to prevent entry would have been appropriate.

Lotek also lost, or had taken, the feeling of security in one's own home. Either a person's home is their castle, or the commune's property is anyone's to access whenever they want. I think there is much more of a tendency in America to be Gandalf at the door when strangers try to bully their way in: You shall not pass!

England ... wouldn't want to overgeneralize because I only spent a year there in university dormitory, which is communal by nature, but I think there is a more communal view of property. Most certainly it's the case (regardless of location) when you have roommates in a rented flat ... it's not your castle, it's shared space, you have very little privacy and thus very little privacy to lose.

My willingness to forcefully prevent the entry of burglars has very little to do with "things" I might lose, it has to do with my visceral reaction to strangers deciding that it is perfectly okay for them to screw with my life. I think that should be a perilous choice on their part if they don't know me. Firearms are something of a last resort here, I would prefer that they simply lose a little hamstring to the dog, but lacking a dog at the moment, having a Sig Sauer handy is a functional substitute.

Agreed, and very well put, Olympos.

True that some criminals will always, find a way to be armed. . . but the best way to keep guns out of the hands of the majority of casual criminals is to restrict the number of weapons in circulation,

I know why he didn't , but matey boy should have setup a standing order and paid the bitch what he owed - he knew the score. Shades of grey and all, this might be disproportionate, but it wasn't random or unprovoked.

yeah in this case it was not really a burglary, just a case of a spurned lover seeking revenge.

If it had been a real house raid my reaction would have been quite diferent, but I agree that having a gun in the house would only aggravate the level of the situation...

I understand people with a different culture would have arguments for the opposite point of view but it was not my intention to start talking about gun control on this post.

But i don't mind if we do though.

And I'm too new to ever spur a gun control argument, they're generally poisonous to a collegial atmosphere at forums.

Anyway, you don't need to answer the door with a gun in hand, that's crazy .... just keep a softball bat next to the door.

Olympos wrote:And I'm too new to ever spur a gun control argument, they're generally poisonous to a collegial atmosphere at forums.

Anyway, you don't need to answer the door with a gun in hand, that's crazy .... just keep a softball bat next to the door.

Eh, it wouldn't be the first gun control discussion we've had here, and I'm sure it wouldn't be the last. We've always done a good job (I feel) of keeping the discussion civil and not making it personal. I have a lot of respect for the other members here, and the feeling that I get is that they have a lot of respect for everyone, too.

We've done the gun control argument here a million times, it's a total waste. Both sides have good arguments, Americans are raised to believe one side of the argument, the rest of us were all raised to believe the other, no possibilty whatsoever of either side convincing the other, giant waste of time.