HOUSTON– A man who fought off would-be robbers and killed one attacker during a home invasion thought he was going to die.Jose Geronimo and his wife spoke exclusively to KHOU 11 News. They came home battered, bloodied and wrapped in white hospital sheets Monday evening.“(I feel) bad,” Geronimo said. “(I have) a lot of pain (in) my hands. (One attacker) broke my teeth and he hit my lady in the head too.”Their attackers received worse injuries.Mid-morning, someone knocked on the couple’s door…
…The would-be robbers pushed Geronimo into his kitchen and clobbered his wife over the head. The suspects then ran into a room and tried to haul away televisions.However, they did were not ready for what happened next. Geronimo grabbed a kitchen knife and fought back…
…So, Geronimo stabbed both attackers. He killed the male suspect. The surviving suspect ran several blocks and left a blood trail that police were able to follow to her.
Source: Homeowner kills alleged robber in home invasion | khou.com
I think I am going to have to make this my crusade.
Question for those readers that are handy with home improvements. How hard is to change an inward-opening door to outward-opening? One of the cool things about South Florida is that the doors open to the outside for hurricane purposes. Cops and Firemen don’t like them much but bad guys do not either as they can’t be kicked down and sure as hell not make it easy to break in.
They are also a bitch for somebody who manages to make you open the door as they have to pull it and clear a space to get in which gives you both time and space to act… not much!
Really easy if you buy a new door/door frame at Lowes. Much harder if you want to turn your inward door into an outward door.
With a new one its basically just, remove moulding, pop old door off hinges, toss aside, run saws all along the frame with metal cutting saw to cut nails holding old frame in, toss old frame. Then put the new frame and door in, shim it level, nail it in, then put moulding back..
As for using your old door and switching, I’ve never done it but its probably a super gigantic pain in the ass involving inletting, wood puttying, sanding, matching paint. It will litterally get to a point where you hit the frame with 3 or 4 passes of sand paper, reinstall the door entirely, test it, remove door, sand 3 or 4 more times, and then reinstall and test again.
Basically it is less genital-busting and probably cheaper to get a new whole set.
I don’t know about cheaper. It all depends on how much you value your time. If you just wanted to switch the door around odds are you probably have everything you need already but the paint and the wood putty. But external doors need a tight fit to prevent water seepage and heat/cooling loss, and getting that tight of a fit by hand is time intensive.
I’m not an expert, but I have replaced 2 external doors before. It’s not hard.
I’ve been thinking of a good solid security door.
My door has a full length 6″ wide window next to it.
Pro: Makes it awful easy to see the person at the door.
Cons: Makes it easy for someone to reach in and unlock the door.
Really weakens the door locks.
Cannot see anyone against the porch wall.
Front door is double french style. Has windows in both doors plus a window next to it. They open in, they were cheap when I was building my house on a non existing income… yes out open is better. Next up is NEVER go to the door unarmed. NEVER. Cameras and driveway alarms are awesome early warning tools.
Ideally you don’t simply want an outward opening door. You want a “refrigerator hung” door. Fully overlapping the frame, not just secured by the lockset. The harder it’s pushed, the tighter it’s closed.
Honest question: How do you protect the hinge pins on an outward opening door? It seems that is a weak point for bypassing the effectiveness of the lock.
If you bring enough tools to defeat the hinges, you have enough tools to defeat the lock. Even with the pins outside, it takes time and noise to remove them.
If you are home, that is all the warning you need.
I thought about drilling and tapping the pin to one of the hinges, but same as the “Don’t wear a vest because people will know you have a gun” I still have not heard about the first case in a home invasion where the bad guys took the time and tooling to take them out. I do believe is mostly Hollywood BS.