Two gunmen kidnapped my tenant while she was carrying groceries into our home last weekend.
My tenant – who wants to stay anonymous – drove to our triplex (three-unit) home around 9 p.m. on Friday.
She parked on the street outside the house – as we all do – and carried a load of groceries into her unit. She left her purse inside her unit.
She then returned to her car to retrieve the rest of her groceries. As she was collecting her bags, two men jumped at her from around the corner.
One man pointed a gun at her head and demanded money.
She explained that her purse was inside, but told the gunmen that they were welcome to take her groceries.
The man kept the gun pointed at her face.
“Get in the car,” he barked.
So my tenant — now a hostage — climbed into the backseat of her own car. The two gunmen jumped in front.
The would-be driver tried to start the car. But it was a stick-shift, and he didn’t know how to start it.
He became furious and started yelling, “Why is the car not starting? What are you doing?”
My tenant tried to explain that this car has a manual transmission. He needs to push in the clutch.
The gunman kept getting more and more frustrated. Finally he yelled, “YOU drive,” and ordered her – at gunpoint – to move to the driver’s seat.
“Go to an ATM,” he ordered.
She tried to explain that going to an ATM is useless if she’s not carrying her purse. Her ATM card is inside her purse. She can’t withdraw money without it.
But the gunman wasn’t listening.
She turned left, onto the busy road outside our home. She came to the nearest intersection and took another left.
All the while, she kept her eyes peeled for a police car. “If only I can find a police car,” she thought, “I can slam into it. That will get the cop’s attention.”
Alas, she didn’t spot a cop. But she did seize the opportunity to humanize herself.
She introduced herself. She shared her name and described her nonprofit job. She asked them for their names and asked questions about their life.
“They’ll have a harder time killing me once they get to know me,” she reasoned. She maintained a calm exterior.
Meanwhile, the gunmen seemed to be panicking.
“I’m going to shoot you if you don’t drive faster,’” the gunman told her. She sped up. “Please, please, let me get a speeding ticket,” she thought.
One of the kidnappers developed cold feet. As my tenant paused at a STOP sign, he flung open the door and bolted out of the car.
“Hehe – I guess he didn’t want money as badly as you did,” she joked with the remaining kidnapper, who was aiming a gun at her head.
“Just take me home,” he replied.
She and the lone gunman drove for another mile or two before he leapt out of the car at a downtown traffic light. He ran away, into the night.
She took several breaths, steadied herself, and drove back to our home. Once she got home, she started bawling.
****
One of my best friends gave me the following advice about being a landlord:
“It’s not just dollars and cents,” she said. “You’re providing people with a home. You’ll be intimately involved in their lives.”
I’ve always known that. But this crime drives it home. (Pardon the pun).
We’re installing two security cameras on the house: one in the front, one in the back. They’ll be rolling 24/7. We have a fence encasing the house. We installed motion-activated security lights last year.
There’s not much more we can do. I just hope none of my tenants get kidnapped again.
****
I’ve written before about the quirks of our neighborhood – like the homeless people who steal food from our garden. (Which I don’t mind; I’m glad they’re getting fresh veggies.)
Tthere are many quirks like this. We lock our mailbox because our Netflix videos keep getting stolen. A few weeks ago a stranger knocked at my door asking for my old washing machine.
This is an area with $600,000 homes. But it’s also a half-block down the street from Section 8 housing.
What a strange place to live.
****
By the way, the nightly news ran a segment about my tenant’s kidnapping. They didn’t show photos of our house (thank goodness), but there’s plenty of footage of our street.
Click here and scroll down to watch it.
Congratulations to Be’en, the winner of the ‘Til Debt Do Us Part planner giveaway!
Thanks to Alan Cleaver, Sean MacEntee and Chris Dag for the photos.
Oh my goodness, that’s terrifying. So relieved it has a happy ending.
I used to live on a street three houses from the corner. To the right were nice, solid family houses ($400k or so) and to the left was a state housing enclave. You can guess which end I always tried to get people to drive down from when they came by our place…
Wow, that’s an amazing story and it had as happy of an ending as you could ask for in that circumstance. Sounds like she did everything right, by not panicking, talking, and trying to look for an opportunity to get out of the situation. Kudos to her for keeping a cool head.
What an amazing story. So glad she wasn’t hurt physically, but it will take a long time to feel right psychologically. My brother was held over night and was forced to go to an ATM on consecutive days for drug money.
@cashflowmantra — Wow, I’m so sorry to hear that! I can’t imagine being held overnight. I know how affected she is, and she was only held for about 15 minutes.
Wow!!! What a story – and what a scary experience for your tenant. That was really quite smart of her to try to make a personal connection with them. I’m glad it all turned out okay.
Wishing you much safety going forward…
That’s pretty crazy! $600,000 homes down the street form Section 8 is also strange – don’t know if I’ve seen that.
On a safety note, you should probably be less specific about the cameras you are installing. It’s possible that someone will see the details and be able to avoid their line of sight – just being paranoid for you!
@PKamp3 — LOL, yeah, I’ve been thinking that cameras will probably only deter professional thieves who are on the lookout for cameras. Amateurs or first-timers — as these gunmen, I think, were — might not have the foresight to check for cameras.
This is not really a tenant story! This could happen if you were there too. Unfortunately, this stuff happens everywhere, although that does not diminish how scary it can be. When you are by yourself, particularly women should be very careful no matter where you are.
@krantcents — I think I want some pepper-spray for my home office. I’m alone at home all day — granted, it’s the daytime — but still, pepper-spray would be nice.
I know how your tenant felt, because we were stuck up sitting in front of the house in Sept. This is not an affluent neighborhood, so everyone’s in the same boat. Although it was late, we were praying, the dog was in the back seat, and if he hadn’t kept barking, it might’ve been much worse. I wrote a blog about it at the time, found at http://jsbnew.wordpress.com/. Tell your tenant that I’m praying for her. And I’m praying for you, too. You have a really good blog. God Bless.
@Ms. JSB — Thank you so much for your prayers and your kind words.
I considered buying a house right at the intersection of a decent neighborhood and a crime-ridden neighborhood. I decided to pass on the deal, and not a week later, a woman was caught in cross-fire and died at that intersection. It’s a scary world!
Holy crap! I’m glad your tenant is alright. She got lucky. I’ve heard more and more stories of this kind of thing happening near the park. Two of my friends had a portapotty that was sitting against their building set on fire (who knows why), and it spread to the building.
It’s still a lot safer than it was even 10 years ago, though.
@Kyle — It’s so hard for me to imagine Atlanta 10 years ago … or even imagine it before the 1996 Olympics. It must have been a totally different world. …. The area around Piedmont Park is so strange. It’s such a mix of affluence with poverty, of families and young single people, and everything in between …. I’ve never lived in a place like this before.
This is crazy! Glad that it didn’t happen to you and that it was a happy ending with no one hurt.
I hope the cameras help. Seems like you’re doing all you can otherwise.
p.s. – Great job telling the story!
@Jeffrey – Thanks; I got to trot out my old journalistic training in telling the story. Crime reporting is the first thing I learned on the job — it’s basic news 101. (Did you notice that the actual news story was full of typos?) …. I think the cameras will deter professional thieves. Stupid amateur criminals, on the other hand, probably won’t be savvy enough to check for cameras.
Never go to the second location!!! That’s the first rule of being kidnapped.
How scary! I can’t imagine, ug. I’m glad it worked out ok. She stayed calm, I don’t know if I could have.
@Ashley — I can’t believe how calm she was, either. I always knew that she was the mature, responsible type, but …. wow. This is a whole new level of level-headedness.
Paula, I am so glad everything turned out o.k. I have to say that my heart was racing as I read your story, especially since we both live in the same area. We have had several scary incidents out here in the suburbs too, so I think it has become a problem everywhere, unfortunately. I think you are wise to install the cameras and maybe your neighborhood could start a neighborhood watch, or have an officer come speak about personal and home safety? Hope that things improve in the neighborhood!
Having been held at gunpoint before way back when I was in high school I can tell you that it’s not a pleasant experience, and not one that your tenant will probably ever forget.
You feel truly powerless and violated and at the same time. You almost feel ashamed for some reason, like you shouldn’t have let it happen to you – even if it was unavoidable. It definitely takes a while to feel safe again.
@Peter — Wow, I’m sorry to hear that it happened to you too. I have no idea what to do or say to help my tenant, other than “I’m going to install cameras and more lights in an effort to make this place as safe as possible.” I guess it’s just something that time, family, friends and faith will heal.
Wow that’s scary!
What a story! I hope your tenant is feeling OK and is not veyr shaken. This is a horid thing to happen. But suppose with the increase of the wealth gap we will see it more often.
Good for your tenant for keeping her cool. I’d have been an absolute mess. It’s horrible- when you see this sort of stuff on the news, you never think that can happen to you or someone close to you.
wow – that is absolutely crazy. Thank God for a good ending! Phew! Glad to hear you are installing video cameras.
Wow Paula! Were you home at the time? I am glad you friend is alright (I am on my way to read Part 2)
@Evan — Thank goodness I wasn’t home! I was in Florida for the weekend, and I received a phone call around 10 pm from one of my other tenants, telling me that there were 8-10 police cars surrounding our house ….
whoa! That’s a crazy story and scary. Glad to hear your tenant was unharmed.
Wow. So scary. I’m not sure what I would have done in her situation. Glad she came out okay.
@Stephanie — She apparently had been trained in how to respond to these types of situations — which really paid off!
how did she stay so calm. what a brave woman.
I’ve never had anything bad happens in front of my home or to my tenants. But i did have a tenant that had a goat living in the house. Now i only put hard wood floor in my homes. The parquet kind. No more carpet. It’s saved me a bundle over the years.
As someone who has been held at gunpoint twice in his life — including once being pinned to the ground with a sawed off shotgun to my head — I am amazed your friend could muster the courage to crack a joke.
(Shameless plug: A couple years ago I wrote about my experiences on my blog.)
Anyway, talk about nerves of steel!
I’m just glad this turned out for the best.
Wow! What amazed me most are the comments that followed.
I’m sooo glad that I live in Singapore.
I see a police car, perhaps, once every week or so, but so few crimes are committed. The laws are freakishly harsh for that kind of thing.
If you get caught, it’s prison. No bed. Concrete floor. No air conditioning (imagine 90 degrees every day, with 90% humidity). No reading material. Oh, and you share the concrete slab with another room-mate. I learned a lot from a guy who was formerly incarcerated.
It’s enough to scare anyone to abide my the law.
That was really a terrifying story. But at least it ended.
@David — It had such a relieving and happy ending … she handled the situation so well.
thats a mad story glad your tenant is ok their are some mad F**Kers about.
Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can recommend? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any assistance is very much appreciated.
Nichole …. I recommend the akismet plugin.