What would you have done in my situation?

Last night, I was sleeping in my dorm room when I was woken up by lots of light flooding into my room. I looked toward the door and saw a large black man unplugging all the wires from my roommate's TV. Most of the campus went home for Easter, so it was just me and one other person on the entire floor of my dorm building. I was paralyzed with fear and didn't know what to do, so I put my head down and acted like I was asleep. About a minute later, the thief was gone.

Now, he had to have known I was in there because a few of the things he stole, including my wallet and my cell phone, were on my desk which is right beside my bed. There were either multiple thieves or the man made multiple trips because, all in all, he stole my roommate's 42" TV, my Xbox and all 10 or so of my games, my Band of Brothers DVD set, my wallet, my phone, and my backpack. I slept through most of it because (I'll give him credit) he was very quiet and quick-moving, and I was sound asleep because I have a sinus infection. I also had a fan running the whole time, which made it even harder to hear the thief. When I was sure he was gone, I ran to my friend's room and woke her up. From there, we called campus security and the police department.

This is pretty much the craziest thing that has happened to me (I've lived a rather boring life). Any comments/reactions? What would you have done if you woke up with a thief in your dorm room?

Not sure if you're allowed weapons in the dorm. Though I would of pulled my 12 ga shotgun out and preceded to shoo him off. I'm not the type to let people walk all over me.

Just gone, 'shut the door on your way out..'.

That's why I sleep with a weapon. I would have jumped up and stabbed him a few times, then called the police.

EDIT: After reading your whole post, I get the impression you are a female. In that case, I guess I would have done what you did. I am thinking from my point of view with my first response. I am a male 240LB and 6'3", so I am not little myself. I would buy a gun if I were you and learn how to use it. Sleep with that at night. If you are scared to shoot somebody out of fear of killing them, then just put a round in their leg.

That's why I sleep with a weapon. I would have jumped up and stabbed him a few times, then called the police.

EDIT: After reading your whole post, I get the impression you are a female. In that case, I guess I would have done what you did. I am thinking from my point of view with my first response. I am a male 240LB and 6'3", so I am not little myself. I would buy a gun if I were you and learn how to use it. Sleep with that at night. If you are scared to shoot somebody out of fear of killing them, the just put a round in their leg.

AmazonTreeBoa

Well...turns out I'm a guy. I'm not very big, though. About 5'8", 125 lbs (I'm a distance runner for my university). I'm not too keen on the idea of taking on a thief who is much bigger than me, especially in the middle of the night when I'm sick with a sinus infection.

What would you have done if you woke up with a thief in your dorm room?

MajorSport

I probably would have asked him to leave my backpack as all my notes are in there and it's priceless to me, worthless to everyone else. I'm sure there are plenty of ways that could go wrong, but I think if that happened to me I would try my best to not startle him, yet still get his attention ad ask if he can leave me my notes. While I'm at it I might ask him if he can leave the wallet, but take the credit cards and money, I like my wallet for one and I'd prefer not to replace every single card I have in there.

Jump up, land a couple good body shots to give me enough time to make it passed the doorway and run down the hall screaming "THEIF!"

[QUOTE="AmazonTreeBoa"]

That's why I sleep with a weapon. I would have jumped up and stabbed him a few times, then called the police.

EDIT: After reading your whole post, I get the impression you are a female. In that case, I guess I would have done what you did. I am thinking from my point of view with my first response. I am a male 240LB and 6'3", so I am not little myself. I would buy a gun if I were you and learn how to use it. Sleep with that at night. If you are scared to shoot somebody out of fear of killing them, the just put a round in their leg.

MajorSport

Well...turns out I'm a guy. I'm not very big, though. About 5'8", 125 lbs (I'm a distance runner for my university). I'm not too keen on the idea of taking on a thief who is much bigger than me, especially in the middle of the night when I'm sick with a sinus infection.

Yeah, I think you're pretty sane for doing this. I'm a lot bigger than you and I don't think I'd take on a miscellaneous stranger lurking in my room.

I would have confronted him and physically fought him if I had to. No way I would allow someone to steal anything from me, let alone from the place where I am living.

Specifically, this is the reason I keep a hand and a half long sword, a two handed bastard sword and my white ash bohken within a five foot security parameter of my bed side.

I don't want to kill an intruder, just make them piss their pants and hopefully run for their life.

ed: I forgot about the 12" bowie knife behind the headboard.

Skarwolf

That all goes way beyond what you can legally do to an intruder and you would leave plenty of evidence to support his testimony against you.

It's almost impossiblefor anyone to predict what they might actually do in a situation like that unless they've been there. Since you're in college, you should go to the health center and talk to the school psychologist about it. But whatever you do, don't beat yourself up or second-guess your reaction.If you got out of it without physical harm, then you did the right thing.

I hope everyon ITT knows that (even in states like Texas) deadly force is only allowed when your life is actually in danger. If someone breaks in =/= you can shoot them If someone breaks in with a weapon and tries to come at you = you can (usually) shoot them The courts do not view the loss of property as a reason to kill someone It would not be worth the loss of your freedom to shoot/stab/kill someone over stuff rawsavon

That sounds a little strange, I would think you would be able to shoot an intruder, especially if you couldn't tell if they were armed or not. Shooting to kill, though, is a different story, as is tying someone up and performing electroshock therapy on them.

I would have beat the s*** out of him. I don't know why you didn't.

[QUOTE="rawsavon"]I hope everyon ITT knows that (even in states like Texas) deadly force is only allowed when your life is actually in danger. If someone breaks in =/= you can shoot them If someone breaks in with a weapon and tries to come at you = you can (usually) shoot them The courts do not view the loss of property as a reason to kill someone It would not be worth the loss of your freedom to shoot/stab/kill someone over stuff theone86

That sounds a little strange, I would think you would be able to shoot an intruder, especially if you couldn't tell if they were armed or not. Shooting to kill, though, is a different story, as is tying someone up and performing electroshock therapy on them.

There have been several cases where the courts have NOT sided with the person being robbed.
Granted it is usually up to a jury (so all bets are off).

But, for the most part, property does not give you the right to shoot/stab/etc (especially when they are trying to escape with your property).
The short version is that you are only able to respond with like force.
-someone tries to car jack you with a gun = you can shoot them (usually).
-someone steals your car (you are not in it) = you can't shoot them

You are not even able to set up 'traps' for robbers (great case involving a shotgun trap in house that was robbed multiple times)

This came as quite shock to me (especially in my home state of Texas) when I had to take my business law cIasses

Thats a intense story dude, sucks you got robbed but atleast no physical harm happened to you. Jusdt think maybe if you did confront him something alot worse could have happened.

As for what I would do, well I don't really know as when your in the situation it's alot differnet than when your thinking about the situation. I would like to think I would have done something to stop him from stealing all my stuff but most likely woulda just laid there like you did maybe try to follow him out and get a better look at who i'm dealing with and get some evidence for the police.

This is what happens, because they don't let you keep a 12 gauge in your dorm. You just get out of bed and pump that chump... full of lead. Show him how surgical itcan be up close. "You wants some of this?CLANK CLANK- BOOM! Have another, I insist. CLANK CLANK - BOOM!"

Or keep a nice stabbin knife with a 9" blade and a blood canal on both sides of the blade. Just stab the night away.

Perhaps keep a hammer under your pillow so you can just cave his skull in. Make aperformace out of it. Just wack away wall singing "Once... twice... three times the cave in." Or have your buddy jump on the piano and go ragtime while you tenderize the intruders brains. Show that chump how to do he grey matter groove.

[QUOTE="theone86"]

[QUOTE="rawsavon"]I hope everyon ITT knows that (even in states like Texas) deadly force is only allowed when your life is actually in danger. If someone breaks in =/= you can shoot them If someone breaks in with a weapon and tries to come at you = you can (usually) shoot them The courts do not view the loss of property as a reason to kill someone It would not be worth the loss of your freedom to shoot/stab/kill someone over stuff rawsavon

That sounds a little strange, I would think you would be able to shoot an intruder, especially if you couldn't tell if they were armed or not. Shooting to kill, though, is a different story, as is tying someone up and performing electroshock therapy on them.

There have been several cases where the courts have NOT sided with the person being robbed.
Granted it is usually up to a jury (so all bets are off).

But, for the most part, property does not give you the right to shoot/stab/etc (especially when they are trying to escape with your property).
The short version is that you are only able to respond with like force.
-someone tries to car jack you with a gun = you can shoot them (usually).
-someone steals your car (you are not in it) = you can't shoot them

You are not even able to set up 'traps' for robbers (great case involving a shotgun trap in house that was robbed multiple times)

This came as quite shock to me (especially in my home state of Texas) when I had to take my business law cIasses

I really dislike that law. But if it's your house and it's just you and them and you kill them, you have the advantage of the courts only being able to hear your side of the story.

I'm on jury duty next week and in such a scenario I think it is very likely that I would side with the person whose house is being robbed and is the real victim.

Come on guys, there's no way all of you would just jump up out of the bed and go like FIGHTING MODE ON: Whirlwind Kick!!!!!!! right after waking up from some random noise, all dazed/groggy'd up.

Personally, I'd be so caught off guard there's no way I would've done anything else than panic and pretend to be dead. :p

Everyone is a bad ass on the internet, I guess. I'm just glad I'm not hurt. I ran a bunch of scenarios through my head of me confronting the guy, and they all ended up with me beat up or dead. I've never been in a fight before, and I wasn't about to have a sudden change of heart or spike of aggression in the middle of the night, all alone in my dorm building (except for a girl down the hallway).MajorSport

I would probably have done the same thing, honestly. Though, I always sleep with my phone on my bed, so I probably would have called 911 quietly. I would have been afraid of the thief/thieves attacking me, so trying to keep myself from harm would have been more important to me than objects that can be replaced.thunderboltkidx

What would you have done in my situation?

MajorSport

Two words: Barrel Roll

[QUOTE="MajorSport"]

What would you have done in my situation?

F22_King_Raptor

Two words: Barrel Roll

Everyone is a bad ass on the internet, I guess. I'm just glad I'm not hurt. I ran a bunch of scenarios through my head of me confronting the guy, and they all ended up with me beat up or dead. I've never been in a fight before, and I wasn't about to have a sudden change of heart or spike of aggression in the middle of the night, all alone in my dorm building (except for a girl down the hallway).MajorSport

I think you nailed it here. No one can really say how they would react until they were in the situation. Its pretty easy to say youd get up and punch the guy in the ribs and run... if the guy is robbing college dorms he prob wouldnt think twice about stabbing you in order to sell your tv for a hundred bucks out of the back of his POS car somewhere....

I think you did the right thing. Its definitely not worth getting hurt over anything that is replaceable. Your college owes you some $ my friend

Why was your door unlocked?Rocky32189

[QUOTE="MajorSport"]Everyone is a bad ass on the internet, I guess. I'm just glad I'm not hurt. I ran a bunch of scenarios through my head of me confronting the guy, and they all ended up with me beat up or dead. I've never been in a fight before, and I wasn't about to have a sudden change of heart or spike of aggression in the middle of the night, all alone in my dorm building (except for a girl down the hallway).mamelon2012

I think you nailed it here. No one can really say how they would react until they were in the situation. Its pretty easy to say youd get up and punch the guy in the ribs and run... if the guy is robbing college dorms he prob wouldnt think twice about stabbing you in order to sell your tv for a hundred bucks out of the back of his POS car somewhere....

I think you did the right thing. Its definitely not worth getting hurt over anything that is replaceable. Your college owes you some $ my friend

The moment I notice my stuff is missing, I'd have probably gone nuts.

Everyone is a bad ass on the internet, I guess. I'm just glad I'm not hurt. I ran a bunch of scenarios through my head of me confronting the guy, and they all ended up with me beat up or dead. I've never been in a fight before, and I wasn't about to have a sudden change of heart or spike of aggression in the middle of the night, all alone in my dorm building (except for a girl down the hallway).MajorSport

Why don't you have a baseball bat in your room? Or some kind of other weapon you can use to defend yourself? Even on an air force base I kept a bat next to my bed. And it came in handy when dorm parties got out of hand, or to break up fights. To this day I keep a bat in next to the coat rack by the door, but that's all just for lack of a better place for it, considering I have a handgun.

You should have stood up for yourself, man. Might still have your things if you did.