Jackson Heights Life

Last night at 11:45 PM I was sitting in front of my computer. Directly behind me on the opposite side of the room is a window to the fire escape. The window does have a fire safety gate on it, but I had it open and a small fan in the window. I heard a crash and thought the fan fell over. When I turned around the fan was lying down, the screen that was down was now up and I saw a a pair of man's arms on the fan. He was about to move it out of the way and come in!

I did scare him with a LOUD set of expletives. Now the guy was apologizing and trying to hand me a story about not being able to get into his apartment. I did see him and he was no one that I know. And he certainly knew this isn't his apartment. The guy ran up above and disappeared.

I don't know, if he's desperate from Covid economics or if he has an expensive daily habit to support. Both of which are maybe an incentive for burglary. I should also say that the window is quite visible to the outside and in a fairly well lit up place. This may be an isolated incidence or the beginning of a neighborhood rash. Please be vigilant as well as careful!

Other than being rattled by this experience I am fine. Who knows what would have happened if he had come all the way in. Yes he went up and disappeared and that doesn't necessarily mean to another window. I am now better prepared in a legal way. So I wouldn't recommend that he or any of his friends try it again.   

Wow. So glad you are okay.

sorry for the scare, but glad to hear that there could be video evidence to help catch the guy.

Thanks dssjh! The cops pointed out the cams to me and said there are cams across the street also. Really it's not the sort of thing I pay attention to. And there is a good reason for that - I'm not into mischief! Just a normal low key person here. So they see me coming and going? Who cares, I have nothing to hide. Now that I see the cams my sense of humor says look up at them and wave hi.

I hope that it makes you feel comfortable as well to know that the cams are there.

Thanks also ljr.

I also want to say that I do not support defunding the police, and held that view before my incident. If there are problematic cops the system needs to be able to identify them and handle that on an individual basis. We need to have them and having less instead of more is not going to help anything at all.

One bit of advice that I got in college: a baseball bat requires no permit.

One bit of advice that I got in college: a baseball bat requires no permit.

Not quite good advice. You can keep a baseball bat, but if you hit someone with it it's still assault with a deadly weapon. Lock your doors and windows.

The way I understand the law - if someone is completely physically in your place and threatens you, you can do what you need to defend yourself and home. In my case since he wasn't completely in if I had somehow harmed him I could be liable. Yes, that is what we are up against.The nebulous part is what do they call a threat? And it would be their word against mine.Weapon or no weapon shown to me their presence is a threat. They didn't just climb through the window for a cup of tea.