Your home is your castle only as long as you can defend it. Safety is an illusion and you must be prepared for those who would harm your family and the unthinkable lengths they will go through to victimize your family:
An Oxnard man was arrested today on suspicion of kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary after police found him in a car with a 20-month-old girl abducted from her parents’ home less than two hours earlier, authorities said.
Carlos Garcia Morales, 23, was booked into Ventura County Jail, Oxnard police said.
Morales is suspected of abducting the toddler from a home in the 100 block of South McKinley Avenue in Oxnard about 1:28 a.m., police said. Morales entered the home, took the child from her parents’ bed and left on foot, police said.
Authorities launched a street-by-street search for the child with the help of a sheriff’s helicopter and bloodhounds. Officer Matt Crenshaw found the girl in a car with the man in the Colonia neighborhood about 3:15 a.m., not far from her home, police said. The child was returned to her parents.
[…]
The family was traumatized by the girl’s abduction but overjoyed to get her back, said her father. The Star does not name suspected sexual assault victims or their relatives.
“Since 1 a.m., we have not slept,†her father, 22, said about 11 a.m. today.
He and the girl’s mother, also 22, had been asleep for about 3 1/2 hours when the kidnapper crept through their front door and into their bedroom, her father said in Spanish.
The kidnapper snuck past the parents and put the child under his arm. He was carrying her out of the room when she cried “mama†and woke her mother, her father said.
The kidnapper ran, and her mother screamed and chased him. The father then awoke and joined the pursuit in boxers and bare feet, he said.
The kidnapper escaped around a corner, and the father called 911. Minutes later, police arrived and a helicopter flew overhead.
I would argue that had the father had a gun and fired a warning shot (or popped one in his leg) Morales would not have gotten away. The important factor here is that this filthy degenerate was willing to sneak into a random house in blue state California to kidnap a toddler to rape. But why?
Because it is unlikely that he would run into a house full of armed people if he stuck to victimizing law abiding citizens. The victims are immigrants I believe, meaning they couldn’t legally buy a weapon. Morales likely knew they were honest, hard working people without the means to defend themselves and that’s why he targeted them.
It is terrible what happened to this girl, and it shows us that locked doors and streetlights mean nothing to the monsters waiting to harm our loved ones. You are the first, and often last, line of defense between your family and a violent criminal, so be prepared to do what it takes to keep them safe.
h/t Dreamin’ Demon
Several years ago, when I lived in MA, a guy broke into a Boston home in the very early hours of the morning. He saw that there was a stroller on the front porch, so guessed that there was a young child inside.
The father woke to find this guy, a total stranger, in his infant’s bedroom. The man had removed the child’s diaper before the father walked into the room.
I can’t even imagine the horror of finding someone in my house while my family is sleeping, there to steel my child. I definitely think that situation would be lethal for that person.