If you do, it should probably be stored in a bank vault, and not on your property. Homeowner pursues suspects on his property, gets car shot at in Columbia
Also, it isn't your job to pursue criminals. And yes, I understand the desire for justice, but I also understand that this guy could have been killed. After the homeowner discovered the people "on his property," he pursued them.
The suspects left the scene in a vehicle and the homeowner followed them for several blocks, CPD officials say.
During the chase, a suspect shot at the homeowner's vehicle striking the windshield in the 2800 block of Leesburg Road.
He was injured by pieces of the broken windshield, but he could have been killed.
I believe in defending my life and my safety, but I am very conflicted about stories like this because people put themselves in positions where they can be seriously injured - if he had been shot, he would likely have been shot in the head - or killed.
Note: Also see the posts Do You Own Anything That Is Worth Your Life? Part 2 and The 3rd Story Today of Homeowners Confronting Car Burglars
Everyone needs to make those value decisions themselves, but your stuff IS your life. It's the stored up result of spending part of your life working for the 'stuff'. Replacing the stuff takes current work or resources that were likely already allocated.
ReplyDeleteSo if you don't have much surplus time or stored up work (money), you will be spending some part of your current life replacing the "just stuff".
If having a car is the only thing that keeps you working, so that you can feed yourself and your family, then that car is life or death. That is an extreme example, but just because most of us are comfortable enough that we can write off stuff we spent part of our one and only life to get, doesn't mean the others might not make different decisions, or that we might make a different call some other time.
Sometimes it's "just stuff", and sometimes it's a piece of your life that you can't get back.
Obviously, it's worth their life to the person trying to take it....
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I agree that you need to make that determination yourself.
DeleteI drive a 2007 Ford SUV that just passed 275,000 miles. The most expensive thing inside the car is probably the lock box I use when I have to disarm myself to go into a post office, or wherever. After that, the next most expensive item is either a quart of oil, or the charger for my phone.
While I would miss the 4 new tires and the new battery I put on the vehicle this winter, I would not risk my life over it. The vehicle is insured. The rest of everything in the vehicle - including the 4 new tires - is less than $1500. I won't risk my life for $1500 bucks, and even though were I to replace the vehicle it would cost more than insurance would pay, I still won't put my life on the line for that.
As for the criminals in the world today, they will shoot you for a couple of hundred bucks. Hell, carjackers in Chicago were shooting people who drove manual transmissions, because when they realized they couldn't drive the car they were trying to steal, they got mad. They shot people over LITERALLY no money at all.
Think about your family, visiting you in the hospital - or the morgue - and decide how much you really want to confront the person rummaging around in your car.