Police/Robbery Story

[Colder Hands]

Long story + mini rant to follow about the night I just got home from...

I am awakened at around 1:15am by a call from my friend in Atlanta who tells me my very close friend who he is dating here in DC has been robbed outside her house. They took her phone and bags, but she does have a house phone and was able to call him and the police. Her house phone is old and never used and cordless and the battery died after 5 minutes of use. He tells me she is there alone and freaking out because of the ordeal.

Cab drops her at corner of intersection a few feet from her house, she has luggage with her. van pulls up, slides door open and two guys roll out and rob her. No wonder she is freaking out, plus she fears they could come back at any point and have her keys from her bag and can just come in the house to rob more... and it is scary for her recovering from thinking she might be thrown in the van and having god knows what done to her...

While he is telling me the story I have grabbed shorts, a t-shirt, keys and my gun. Had I been thinking clearly I would have dug out my ID that I don't always carry. ID that would have saved a world of hassle later...

Anyway, I run to her place which is a little over a mile away from where I live. I beat the cops there and draw my gun and start to approach the building slowly. As I am going up the steps to the house (gun drawn, but pointed at the ground by my hip) the cops pull up. I tuck the gun into the shoulder harness and raise my hands in the air, drop to my knees and await them to come forward. They do guns drawn and yelling for me to lay down. No problems there, makes sense based on the call and what they saw. This stirs my friend to run out of the house now and yell "no no he is my friend and came to help". Cops don't give a shit. They ignore her, the victim, to ask me what my story is, take the gun, push for ID, all that. Again, I understand this, but we have an actual victim they are ignoring. There are two of them, one could be checking on her.

Now we have two more cars arrive while this is happening. All of them are 100% focused on me and no one is actually, you know, responding to the call and in search of the van!!!

Things finally get a little sorted out. They talk to her and they are going to take her to the station for a statement. I ask if I can go with her. I am told no, I will be taken into custody for illegal possession of a fire arm. Even though I have instructed them I have the proper paperwork as well as giving them a number they can call to validate my credentials.

I am annoyed but whatever, as long as my friend is being taken care of and I know she is safe. I don't get angry or complain. I just calmly agree and say I am happy to go with them as we can straighten this out fast once we get there.

So it takes almost 2 hours for them to clear up my situation. Now I ask them where my friend is as she is alone and w/o her phone and that I'd like to be with her for support and to take her home once she is wrapped up. No one can/will tell me where she is... I call the only 2 stations she could have been taken to given her location (one of which i am standing in while i call) and no one will confirm anything and worse I tell them to just pass on a message to the officer in control of her case so he/she can inform my friend and or call me back.

I finally get a call from the boyfriend in ATL and he says she just called him from an officer's cell and they have her on the scene of a 4th robbery. They caught who did it, making other robberies, and took her to the scene. Says she is OK and feeling much better. Plus they have caught the people that did it and retrieved her stuff (stuff that needs to clear going through evidence first, but whatever) so she is much more relaxed. So this can explain why no one I called could be very helpful as it appears she was off the grid.

So as annoying and disorganized as the Police were (and their response time was crap to the call initially) they came through finding the people that committed the crime. Granted it helped that the criminals robbed at least 3 other people that we know of at this time but hey they got them!

I was waiting at the 101 in DC and they asked me to go home and lose the gun!!! They felt it looked bad having a guy in a t-shirt and shorts with a shoulder harness pacing around.

So now I am home and waiting for my friend to call so I can go pick her up and take her home. She is going to stay with me for a few days while I install some extra security at her house.

I am very annoyed at many things that happened w/the cops tonight, but only in the way they continued to act. When I am calm and speaking clearly and they are torquing on my arm bent behind my back yelling "why ya got a gun???" interrupting me explaining why I have a gun....gets annoying. I can understand their actions, but I was very upset no one attended my friend in the first 15+ minutes of their arrival. Especially when additional officers reached the scene. I had not presented myself toward them in a threatening nature at all/ I was calm and identified myself plain and clear. I directed them to place me in the back of a car in cuffs while they saw to my friend... Again, I understand their actions on arrival, but nothing after that first interaction with them was handled accordingly. However, despite the time botch by the cops initially, they did a great job picking up the van, again slightly lucky that the idiots chose to make a night long robbery spree.

Pretty worried about my friend though. She has lived in this house about 6-7 years. She has had two people stabbed in her front yard and now she was robbed on the steps of her place. The good side is she always felt safe there for the most part and would walk home very very drunk which always scared all of her friends and family. Hopefully she can mentally recover from this incident and yet gain a learned experience and take better care of her personal safety. Unreal the time she gets robbed is when she is sober and used a cab!!! She can always throw that back in my face...

I hope my wife learns something from this as well and starts carrying her pepper spray and having her keys out and ready whenever she arrives at the apartment. Even when in a safe neighborhood one never knows and it's important to follow the small steps that help get you back in your home quickly. Delays like fumbling to get your keys out (which usually equals head down as well) can be costly.

I have a serious case of the Mondays but not as bad as my friend :(

[Salome the Persian Witch]

Your life is extraordinarily drama filled, my friend. Glad you and all involved aren't hurt, at least. :grouphug: (I am afraid the anti-cop thread is farther back in the queue).

[The Iceman of the North]

Glad everything worked out in the end. But why would you draw the gun as you were approaching her house when you knew the police was on their way?

[Howdyphillip]

That is a cool post. I enjoyed reading your story, and I am glad that everyone is safe, and I am really glad that the assholes that robbed her got caught and that she is going to get her stuff back.

I have a CHP (Concealed Handgun Permit) here in Texas, and I do not know what the law is in DC, but if I were to be stopped without it while in position of a firearm, then I would have been arrested, charged, and I would lose my license. I personally keep a copy of my CHP in my holster at all times so I always have it when I am carrying my gun.

It sounds like the cops were a bit dickish to you, but try to put yourselves in their position for just a little bit. They were answering a call in a place were someone was just strong armed, had a history of violent crimes, and encountered an armed suspect that could not verify why he was carrying a lethal weapon. Frankly, anyone that you get to do that job is going to be a bit brutish to begin with, so it sounds like that although it was annoying could have been a lot worse.

Take care out there. I am hoping this story ends with your friend recovering ALL of her stuff, and the scum that did it behind bars for a long time...

[Lord O' Bones]

Glad everything worked out in the end. But why would you draw the gun as you were approaching her house when you knew the police was on their way?

Last knowledge is that she is alone, and the perpetrators have the key to her house now.

Has gun permit. (forgot to bring that though, D'oh!)

If you walk into a possibly dangerous situation with a gun, and it's not drawn, what's the point?

[Filippa Eilhart]

sounds like a movie! scary!

so would you atually shoot the robbers if they were there?

[Lord O' Bones]

so would you atually shoot the robbers if they were there?

I know you're not asking me, but if they didn't follow simple commands like "get on the ground with you hands behind your head" and your friend might be in danger not to mention yourself what other choice? That's the option you gave yourself by showing up by yourself with a drawn weapon.

[Mme Erzulie]

This story makes me thankful I don't live in the US.

Pepper spray? Keys in hand when approaching home? Jeebus.

[cjfshaw]

Well I'm glad the police somewhere can catch criminals, they certainly aren't very good at it here (Philly).

[emberling]

This story makes me thankful I don't live in the US.

Pepper spray? Keys in hand when approaching home? Jeebus.

There are large areas of the US where such things aren't needed.

Because nobody lives there.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

CH,

I'm a little confused. The officers lost the firearm you have every right to carry? Are they going to replace that firearm since they lost it and you legitimately had it on your person and were defending your friend?

To the Europeans agast that some non-State sponsored individual will go running to a friends house with a firearm remember in the US the police have no affirmative duty to defend you from the bad guys. This woman had just been robbed and the robbers had keys to her home. What CH did was quite logical under the circumstances.

Just wait for Tormund. He will have the links regarding the right to self defense and defense of others along with links showing the police don't have any duty to protect you.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

CH,

I'm a little confused. The officers lost the firearm you have every right to carry? Are they going to replace that firearm since they lost it and you legitimately had it on your person and were defending your friend?

To the Europeans agast that some non-State sponsored individual will go running to a friends house with a firearm remember in the US the police have no affirmative duty to defend you from the bad guys. This woman had just been robbed and the robbers had keys to her home. What CH did was quite logical under the circumstances.

Just wait for Tormund. He will have the links regarding the right to self defense and defense of others along with links showing the police don't have any duty to protect you.

no, they didn't lose his gun, they told him to take it home (lose the gun if you want to hang out here).

CH, glad you and your friend are ok.

[Guest Raidne]

Jesus. Quite the story. Good job keeping yourself in check.

As for the rest, dude, it's D.C. As even owning that handgun was illegal until 2008, it stands to reason that you're going to need to be able to show that it's legit, particularly since you know the police are on their way over there.

On the bright side, at least you didn't get shot and/or brutalized!

[Greywolf2375]

Wow, glad to hear that the whole situation seems to be sorting out.

[Guest Raidne]

Hmmm...I think this bears repeating: good job keeping yourself in check.

That is, IMO, the object lesson of this story.

[IheartTesla]

This story makes me thankful I don't live in the US.

Pepper spray? Keys in hand when approaching home? Jeebus.

The US is big and has a land mass larger than Germany, France and the UK combined. Don't tell me there isn't a place in the combined areas of those three countries where you wouldn't feel safe walking the streets.

[mcbigski]

I am very annoyed at many things that happened w/the cops tonight, but only in the way they continued to act. When I am calm and speaking clearly and they are torquing on my arm bent behind my back yelling "why ya got a gun???" interrupting me explaining why I have a gun....gets annoying. I can understand their actions, but I was very upset no one attended my friend in the first 15+ minutes of their arrival.

At least they didn't shot you.

Don't know about what the permits look like in DC, but in CT they're the same size as your drivers license and I have friends who just carry the permit in their wallets.

I'm curious - When you drove to her house, did you have your drivers license on you? Or no ID whatsoever?

[kungtotte]

He ran to her house. Which is what I would have done too. I don't think you can drive one mile faster than you can run it in an urban area.

While the behaviour of the cops could obviously have been better this story had a happy ending ay least. It seems like every time you hear about the cops doing something, somebody always ends up tasered or shot.

[BigFatCoward]

i'm not going to get into the rest of the post, far too many issues. however with regards to why they police didn't automatically believe your friend when she said 'he's my friend'. we never ever ever beleive anything we hear, ever. she could have been an accomplice to the robbery trying to get you freed if you were involved. it could have been a domestic robbery and victims in domestics are often much more on the side of the suspect than the police, she may have been covering for you because 'i love him'. finally you had a gun, were probably sweating like fuck and a bit antsy since you just ran a mile and adrenalin was cursing through you. they they have a duty to themselves and others to reduce any chance of harm to anyone, including any suspects.

pleased it turned out alright in the end.

personally, and don't take this the wrong way. i consider you brave but kinda daft in the circs.

[Nukelavee]

On the one hand...I totally get the need to get to your friend ASAP to protect her (i've done exactly the same thing before, without the gun).

Forgetting the permit? Shit, that stuff happens all the time, maybe not gun related, but, still, understandable.

As far as the cops go - yeah, regardless of what you and your friend were yelling, dude, you were a wild eyed guy with a gun at a crime scene.

All in all, it turned out fine.

Here's a story that might cheer you up. I had an aquaintence who was some kinda Air Force MP type. He had quite a few experiences ferrying prisoners from bases in Europe back to the States, and was licensed to carry a firearm in teh airports and on planes. Well, one day he forgot to use the "special" security line/inspection, while carrying, and went thru the detectors with his sidearm. Even with his special permit/ID in pocket, it was off to the little room for a strip search.

His story about shooting a fleeing prisoner in an airport was much funnier. (funny because of the lead up to the run, and because he was using "plane-safe" plastic bullets, which did some kinda loopy path that managed to come in sideways and hit the guy in the knee).