NOW My Wife Understands!

[gpbarth]

Today's Daytona Beach News Journal - Local Section:


DELTONA -- Three men have been charged in an armed home invasion, robbery, gunfight and car wreck that happened early Sunday morning.

Three men burst into a home at 2448 Lackland Drive about 1 a.m. and confronted a woman, her adult son and his girlfriend. The son, Julio Blanco, 24, was pistol whipped. The men grabbed a safe, loaded it into their sport utility vehicle and fled, according to a Volusia County Sheriff's Office report.

Witnesses in the neighborhood told police the suspects fired several gunshots as they fled. Blanco got a gun and returned fire, according to the report. Deputies, responding to 9-1-1 calls, spotted the SUV. Sgt. Thomas Dane was in pursuit when the SUV wrecked, rolling over on its side at the intersection of Fort Smith Boulevard and Outrigger Drive. Deputies found the victim's safe in the vehicle.

Another 9-1-1 call about 1:30 a.m. Sunday led deputies to a third suspect in the front yard of a home in the 2100 block of Puerto Rico Drive. The suspect had a gunshot wound to his groin.

Adam Salgado, 30, is charged with home invasion. Bail is set at $20,000.

Brandon Prather, 17, is charged with home invasion with a firearm, aggravated battery and fleeing and eluding. Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said the investigation indicates Prather pistol-whipped Blanco and drove the getaway vehicle. Prather was taken to Florida Hospital Fish Memorial where he was treated and released.

Patrick Lauby, 33, is charged with home invasion and aggravated assault. He was treated for a gunshot wound to the groin at Halifax Health Medical Center.

Bail information for Prather and Lauby was unavailable Sunday night.The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are possible.

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Since we moved to Deltona 3 years ago, from South Florida (where gun crime was the norm), my wife has not seen the need for a gun in the house. "It's so peaceful and quiet," she says. Then we noticed the gang activity a few miles from our house in the local K-Mart shopping center. Then her car got broken into in our driveway, which is well-lit. Actually, the idiots picked the wrong vehicle...had they broken into my '92 Ranger, they would have scored a GPS (which now gets removed every time I leave my truck). As it was, all they did was smash out a window - there was nothing of value in the car.

And now this. Granted, it was on the other side of town from our place, and we live in one of the nicer neighborhoods. We also have iron bars on all windows and doors. Still, anyone attempting a home invasion here will be lucky if he only gets shot in the nuts. MY wife now feels a lot safer with the XD-40 "locked and loaded" within easy reach.

 

[S&WM&P40]

GOOD GOD! How can you live like that? Only way to feel safe is to make your house a jail. Think if it came to it i would move to a new state. Over putting bars on my house.

 

[Glockster20]

Don't have any bars on my windows. Been living in the same house over 5 years now and no problems whatsoever.... knock on wood. We live within several hundred yards of the police station which I'm sure is a deterrent.:wink: I do keep a handgun within reach throughout the house just in case:big_boss:

 

[gpbarth]

GOOD GOD! How can you live like that? Only way to feel safe is to make your house a jail. Think if it came to it i would move to a new state. Over putting bars on my house.

To be honest with you, the house came with the bars. The old woman who used to live here was very paranoid, having the bars and an alarm system installed, including a "safe room" and a panic button. She even had a 2nd phone line run into her bathroom, so she could retreat even further and still call someone on the phone.

I have disconnected the phone line and the alarm system (the alarm system was old and non-monitored). The bars I have left on for several reasons - they protect the windows in case of a hurricane, they let me open my windows when it's cool outside and still keep my house secure (I can go shopping, etc. without having to close the whole house up), AND it is a deterrent to anyone who is casing the neighborhood. I also have a dog, which always helps. And then I have my XD-40. Remember, I lived in South Florida for 58 years, so this place is dead compared to that. But it also pays to be vigilant.

 

[S&WM&P40]

LOL a panic room. Was it as high end as the one in the movie? Yeah that's true about the bars but it just kills the house value when you try and resell it in some place's.

 

[gpbarth]

LOL a panic room. Was it as high end as the one in the movie? Yeah that's true about the bars but it just kills the house value when you try and resell it in some place's.

No, it was actually the master bedroom. When setting up the safe room, that particular interior door is alarmed along with the windows and exterior doors, but on a separate circuit. So even with the alarm supposedly "off", if someone were to open the bedroom door, the alarm would go off. The panic button was also in the master bedroom, and the extra phone line was on the wall right across from the toilet (Hello. Excuse me for a minute while I flush!). The neighbors said that she was a recluse and a hoarder (the garage has shelves along one whole wall, and those shelves were filled with canned goods, probably a year's worth of food). And supposedly she lived in only one room of the house. I can believe it, as the house was built in 1980, and when we inspected it before we bought it (in 2005), it looked like it had never been lived in. The bars on the windows are decorative, and don't detract from the looks at all.
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[HK4U]

I have bars on my house also. I like it that way. If anyone can get passed them the alarm has long sense gone of. If they are still around I will be waiting for them.

 

[HK4U]

Bars and a years supply of food. She sounds pretty smart to me.

 

[gpbarth]

Bars and a years supply of food. She sounds pretty smart to me.

And she didn't even live in Montana, either. Now, if she also had a small arsenal in that garage, I would have paid a little extra for the house! :biggrin: