Armed robberys, have you experienced?

Okay, so i live in yorkshire, in a typical city (has bad areas and good areas like anywhere).

Our area was relatively safe. But yesturday there was an armed robbery at gunpoint in the tescos about 2 blocks away from me.

Im not going to lie, its had me worried now the last 24 hours, and im just wondering, i know big stores/department stores/ mcdonalds/gas stations etc get robbed all the time (not that it should be accepted but it is a sad fact of life that it happens a lot),
but does an armed robbery in a shop mean that robbers are now targeting houses in the area? or do they not work like that.

This was a daylight robbery, in front of people at the store. I wasnt there at the time but when i visited the store last night it had police tape on it, and three police vans there, so obviously with us just being a block away it is a bit disturbing

Remember its got to be worth serious money to be pulling out the shooters so getting £50 quid from robbing a house aint going to cover the risk of serious time and having to face the firearms squad should things go pete tong, plus these guys will generally be from another area so theres less chance of being recognised by the locals

One of the advantages of the UK is our range of accents and dialects as it can help plod no end when they can tell the guys all spoke with a yorkshire accent for example so they can have a chat with that force and pull down a list of potentials in minutes

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


I haven't experienced one directly but I used to live in a pretty bad neighborhood in Edmonton (Canada) and I'd frequent a convenience store near my house for cigarettes or a snack or whatever. It was robbed multiple times during the period of time I lived there. One night I had been working late and forgot to pick up a few things on my way home so I walked to the store to pick them up and the whole parking lot was cordoned off with police tape. Turned out there was a gang shooting right at the bus stop outside the store. Really rough area but I never ended up running into problems (thankfully). I suppose I just had good luck in avoiding bad run in's in that area.

As for what you are asking, I'm not really sure what your question is. Do thugs target homes? Yes, sometimes they do. Someone who is desperate for drugs or money or whatever will target anyone if they think it will pay off. Sometimes they just do it randomly. Not to turn your thread into a gun control debate, but that is why so many Americans feel the need to protect their 2nd amendment rights. A person should be legally allowed to protect their home/family/property with a firearm if need be. Criminals don't obey gun control laws in the first place.

In the UK crime involving guns is very low, including the use of imitation guns and airguns. The rates of such offenses is also dropping and accounted for perhaps 5,000 offenses in 2012/13.

www.ons.gov.uk...-Offe nces-involving-firearms

The chance of actually seeing a robbery using real guns is therefore quite remote, so when they do happen they often make the news.

Regards

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


Morning,

While living in Toronto, I had a home invader break into my apartment with a knife.
He didn't know I was there.
I have never owned a digital camera but the look on his face when I charged at him (doing my best Kurgan impression) with a baseball bat was absolutely priceless. Seriously, it had all the earmarks of a world class meme.
I consider myself lucky.
Suprise played a big part in how the encounter ended.
I almost crowned him with the Louisville Slugger but he was just too fast and was out the door in a flash.
(For those who might be curious...the assailant was Haitian based on what he cried out as he fled.)
He could have just as easily had a gun but I wasn't thinking and simply reacted.
It played out in my favor that time but I'm not placing any bets that I unequivacably did the right thing.
That was well over a decade ago.
I wonder if my Home Invader thinks back as fondly over the incident as I do?
Suppose it's fortunate that I didn't reach him before he ran out the door. One of us would have ended up in the hospital and if I had been the victor, chances are I would have been charged with assault.
There were a few other minor incidents but that one stands out the most.
I still have no fear when walking in bad neighborhoods.
It would seem I look like the kind of person who may be capable of worse behavior than any assailant. It bugs me sometimes but on the bright side, crime seems to give me a wide berth.

-Peace-

(P.S.: Thinking back on it all, I was more furious than scared.)

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


I thought guns were illegal in the UK and everyone says there "We don't have guns in the UK like you yanks", then call us savages and blah blah blah. Then we tell them that crimes are committed by people who have illegally obtained guns...so the question from the savage Yank is this...how did those criminals obtain their guns in Yorkshire?

reply to post by mlifeoutthere

Many moons ago I used to work in a petrol station (gas station to US readers) and did a lot of night shifts (working alone) as the "console operator", which means I pushed the buttons to start the pumps when customers picked one up to pump fuel. And of course, I ran the till.

We had all been told that if we ever got robbed, just cooperate and give the perps whatever they want. I got held up twice. The first one was two guys, one carrying a double-barrelled shotgun. Having one of those pointed at your face from the other side of the counter makes you think about a lot of things very quickly -- your life, your family; things like that. Naturally I sprung the till and they took all the bigger banknotes then asked where all the rest was. So I had to hand over the bag of money as well. They gave me a nice beating around the head for good measure then scarpered in a car.

The police caught them about a week later when they tried a bank robbery less than 3 miles away. Apparently they confessed to robbing me and a few other places as well and I think they went down for a long stretch.

The second time was a guy with a .22 rifle. This was a bit more peaceful, in a way. He just waved the gun around rather nervously (very scary, when they do that) and demanded money. I handed it over and he ran off. I never found out if they caught him or not.

Police did tell me that he was very likely fairly local. He fitted the description of a guy they were after for similar holdups in the area.

Long story short: in both cases, the perps were doing their hits in a fairly confined region and going after places that had plenty of cash on hand. Most people don't keep 1,000s in cash around the house and trying to "fence" jewellery and the like is not so easy. Sure, they can do it but if they want cash then they prefer to hit places that have it.

One thing I can tell you: it's very disturbing to be robbed at gunpoint. One wrong move and you've had it. It was months before I began to sleep okay again.

reply to post by JustMike


So lightning does strike twice in the same place...

I have never been a victim in a robbery, and we have a lot of guns here. That would be scary, and in both instances were they long barreled, but here, they use mostly pistols and handguns. Those are easier to hide.

Chin up, lightning doesn't strike thrice in the same place.

WarminIndy
reply to post by mlifeoutthere

 

I thought guns were illegal in the UK

No, handguns (pistols) are illegal. That's all.

AndyMayhew

WarminIndy
reply to post by mlifeoutthere

 

I thought guns were illegal in the UK

No, handguns (pistols) are illegal. That's all.

Oh, you see, that's not what we are being told. We are told that all guns are illegal, and that's why knife attacks happen more often.

So people in the UK do buy and sell rifles and shotguns...and I assume obtain them illegally as well. I suppose the black market handguns are too expensive for your economy.

reply to post by WarminIndy


Its not hard to get your hands on a gun in the UK legally..

to get a shot gun license you just need not to of been an idiot and be caught for anything serious and can fill out some forms and not break the lens of a camera for some mug shots and thats pretty much it...as many shotguns as you want so long as you have a secure cabinet big enough to hold them

For things more powerful or a pump action shotgun with more than a 3 round capacity you need a firearms license which has the added test of "having a need" and each calibre etc is a separate part so you only get to have the stuff they think you need..no need for a semi auto ar-15 (perfectly legal in uk at .22 cal) if you are hunting deer etc

and technically nothings beyond ownership in the uk - just need to get the home secretary kissed as a punt and sign the forms and you can have a vulcan cannon on your front lawn

but if you want a gun cash in hand then visit your local army

WarminIndy
Oh, you see, that's not what we are being told. We are told that all guns are illegal, and that's why knife attacks happen more often.

UK Knife crime is part of the myth. It’s the same as other developed nations and no different from the US, for example. If the US did not have gun violence then the homicide rate would be the similar to nations like the UK who have a low homicide rate.

As other posters have stated, you can get guns in the UK. Handguns and assault rifles are banned and quite rightly so. My brother has a shotgun (with license) and I have a chainsaw and pruning shears, so we are both well kitted for the zombie apocalypse.

Regards

Well - I'm assuming that you might be asking about gun crime in the UK? But just to add to the perspective of American gun crime...I am currently 48 years old, and I'll be 49 in February. I was born into and raised in a typically upper middle class family (although I would say that now I am at the lower end of the rapidly vanishing middle class). Anyway, when I was a quite naive 19 year old US Army private, I was stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia. On weekends me and a few buddies would go to town and rent a hotel room and party all weekend like dumb a$$ American punk kids do. Anyway, on one of those party weekends, me and a buddy of mine walked into a... let's say a less charitable part of Augusta, Georgia (this was back in 1984). We ran into a young gentleman and were in the process of completing a "business transaction" , when a business associate of this young gentleman approached and pointed a pistol at us and let us know we should hand over all of our cash...which we quite generously did. Later, my buddy admitted that he almost soiled himself, but I can honestly say that I really wasn't fearful for my life - I was just pi$$ed off that I had to hand my money over to someone that ordinarily I could have easily pounded into the ground. I did not believe that this guy would kill me over a couple hundred dollars (but maybe that was just my naivety).

I guess the point to all of this is that, FWIW, even in "gun crazy" America (I have a couple weapons myself now), I have never experienced a gun crime except the one time that I stupidly went into an area I really never should have been in.

reply to post by mlifeoutthere

does an armed robbery in a shop mean that robbers are now targeting houses in the area?

If they have the balls to rob a shop in daylight then you can be dammed sure they would rob a house. Weather or not they do is probably luck more than anything, could be they are in it for a big take, so they target shops or it could be that a new group of drugies have moved into your town and they might just as likely walk into your home and rob you as they would a shop.

I personally have never been robed or been at a robbery but there was one unlucky guy years ago who tried to mug me with a knife. He was unsuccessful is all I will say.

20 years ago, i was in the u.s. navy, stationed on board the u.s.s. nimitz out of bremerton wa. i was sent down to san diego for some refresher training along with some others. one of my best friends from high school lives there, a civilian. one night, he and i met up. we went to vons supermarket for a beer run. we had just paid for our beer and had just left the counter. my head was turned towards him, talking. i hear what i think is a large balloon popping. i whip my head towards the front where the sound came from. i see three men with large pistols, one a revolver, the other a semi auto, running towards me. i and my friend just calmly get on our knees, put our hands behind our head and become the best witnesses we can be while these people clear out the registers. was a very interesting experience. they fired a couple of bullets into the ceiling for intimidation too. don't know if they were ever caught.

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


I have had two instances being in an establishment when it was robbed.
The first was when I was 18, I was waiting for a friend to get off work at the restaurant she worked at.
A person came in and did the whole "gun in the pocket " routine and got like $40, from the cashier.
The next time was, a couple years ago, again at a restaurant. A buddy a myself had gone down to the Mexican place nearby, just before closing. We were actually finished and waiting for the tab, when a woman walked in a trenchcoat over a black hoodie, with it all cinched up, and dark glasses on. I knew right off the bat something was up.
The the way the place is laid, the front door leads to a narrow walkway that has the dining room right, separated by a low (4') wall, the walkway continues on into a small alcove where the cashier is and they do take away orders.
I was facing the door with my back to the wall, as I always do since the first time I was in that situation.
As the woman walked past towards the cashier, she passed out of view. Like I said I knew something was up, and was just nudgeing my buddy to turn around, and already had my phone out to dial 911, but I had just gotten the phone didn't know what it did when you did dial 911. My old phone lit up and started flashing and emitted an ear piercing siren sound, so I held off. About then our server, a wonderful Mexican woman of about 65, came around the corner and hid behind our table and exclaimed "banditos" and a bunch of other Spanish I didn't catch.
At the same time we could hear the woman saying something to the cashier, as she backed out the front door. At that point I couldn't see what type of weapon she had, but I was only two strides from her and was ready to go , but I didn't know where the rest of the staff was and didn't want to endanger them. So a soon as the door closed behind her , i called 911and I was over the wall and out the door after her.
It was them that I saw she had a .22 pump rifle. I was about 30' behind her when she turned the corner and ducked into a very dark alley. I will admit that I hesitated for about 10 seconds before following her, it was enough to lose sight of her in the darkness. Some where in there I hung up on 911.

My buddy had gone the long way around the block and we met at the end of the alley, and he had seen her run into the neighborhood. My buddy went back to meet the police and and continued after the woman. At this time I called 911again, and about a half block away a saw an suv start up and come my direction, at first they drove slowley then as they got to me they sped up ran the stop sign drove into the neighbor hood. I ran after them, giving a description to the operator. They turned at the first block, after about a 100yrds when I got to that intersection I could see that they had stopped a couple of blocks down and took off again.
As I was on my way back to the restaurant, an officer pulled up and I gave him a description of the vehicle and which way they went, and he went after them.
I could hear him light them up a couple of blocks away and they ran until they crashd out a few miles away.
By the time I got back to.the place the detectives had gotten there and I found out about the chase and crash.
They took me over to do a field identification of the two people they had apprehended, I told the officer that there were three people in the car when I last had sight of them, and that it was only about 90 seconds between when I lost sight of them and the pursuit started.
While on the way a call came in to the car that the was a report of someone in a back yard , very near where I saw the car stop.
By the time I met the detectives where they had caught the people, and told that detective about the third person, and that neither of the two people were the robber, the neighborhood dogs had quieted down, and the subsequent check of the report of the person in a backyard turned up nothing.
Local PD's response was very fast, first car on scene in 2-3minutes, a dozen within five minutes.

Afterwards, I wasn't scared or afraid, but it took walking to the neighborhood pub and 3 or 4 pints of newcastle, before I could even think of sleeping.