The Grinches Who Stole Christmas... at Gunpoint

[Meddle]

Or at least tried to.

Detroit —Bound with an electrical cord, Johnny Nelson stared down a pistol, gave up his wedding ring, the cash in his pocket, electronics and more.

But there was no way Nelson would tell the burglars where he hid his Christmas presents.

One day after the break-in, Nelson counted his blessings Wednesday. Just hours before, he and his family — wife Quiana; 10-year-old daughter Elana Grove; and 4-year-old Johnny Nelson Jr. — had settled in for a pizza when two men entered their east-side home about 7:30 p.m.

"As soon as I opened the door, he pulled out a pistol and slung open the door. … I thought we were about to die," said Nelson, 33, a criminal justice major at Wayne State University.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...xt|FRONTPAGE|p

[Zacha341]

Looks like they succeeded - though the crims did not take the actual gifts. This is getting beyond crazy! And I refuse to believe these thieves are all hungry and homeless!

From article: "We're going to move out of here," Johnny Nelson said. "We were planning to move anyway, to the outskirts of Detroit, but I think we're going to cross that line into the suburbs."

Can you blame them for leaving? Home invasion at gun point, tied up, pillow cases put over their heads, TVs taken, 'both' cars driven off with goods... etc. Oh yeah, that would be it for me!

[canuck]

From article: "We're going to move out of here," Johnny Nelson said. "We were planning to move anyway, to the outskirts of Detroit, but I think we're going to cross that line into the suburbs."

Can you blame him? Robbed at gun point, tied up, pillow cases over heads, TVs taken, both cars drove off with goods in them. Oh yeah, that would be it for me!

I dont know, this guy lives in the suburbs and got hit anyways;

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/...706/story.html

I also notice a lot of the home invasions in the past coupla years around here were in the suburbs not in the city, many of them ending in murders, double murders, a lot of violence.

[antongast]

And I refuse to believe these thieves are all hungry and homeless!

Dunno about "hungry and homeless," but "chronically jobless and without prospects" seems like a pretty safe bet.



As I've said before [[and maybe I need a stock disclaimer for these types of threads), I'm not endorsing criminal behavior or arguing that it's acceptable. I'm saying that it's a systemic problem, not an individual one, and if we try to solve it by locking more people up or trying to instill better moral values in them or whatever, it's going to keep failing as miserably as it has for the past 30 years.

[Meddle]

Remember the old wooden stocks from the 1600s?

Set a few of them up in one of the larger vacant lots, lock the home invaders in them and let the pigeons, falcons, raccoons and other scavengers have at 'em.

[Danny]

It's the violent crime and lack of police protection in the ghettoes of Detroit would lead this black middle class family to cross 8 Mile Rd. Did any of your forumers move away from Detroit to the suburbs or ant other cities in the U.S?

[Meddle]

Did any of your forumers move away from Detroit to the suburbs or ant other cities in the U.S?

I moved out to the sticks. Six acres, lots of trees, rabbits and deer.