Looks like a squatter got a surprise when the realtors showed up and were prepared.
Your thoughts on what happened?
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I would advise anyone in the real estate business to get their permit AND CARRY! At the least, get some pepper spray. A criminal can literally pick their prey from a realtor’s website, set up an appointment with them to meet at the house for sale and carry out their attack. Probably doesn’t get much easier than that.
Not to be cynical, but I translate the advice of letting someone in the office know where you’re going and at what time, as well as the name of the person you’re meeting into “Let us know the address, meeting time and name of who you’re meeting so we can tell the police where to go find your body, the time of death and the alias the person was going by!”
Also couldn’t help but notice both have their CCW permits, but one was carrying. I realize it’s personal preference, but why get a CCW, gun etc and not carry it? Murphy’s Law specifically states “If you own a gun, the day you decide not to carry it is when you’ll need it!”
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I cannot carry if I go on a military post or base. That’s a perfect example. You can’t even have it in your automobile. You can’t have ammo either.
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Right. The only time I don’t carry is pretty much when I can’t legally, or I’m at work. I figure that will be the time I really need it.
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This is the whole reason a realtor friend of mine carries. They’ve walked into a “vacant” house and found squatters high on meth before. Pretty scary encounter.
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That’s scary, @45IPAC! Being attacked by someone high on meth is probably one of my worst fears. They don’t feel pain - so unless the shot is to the brain stem, there’s a very good chance I’ll be severely hurt or worse.
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Luckily they didn’t attack. But it did get my friends attention.
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Yeah I wouldn’t go to empty homes unarmed. I think I heard about a serial killer or serial rapist that victimized female real estate agents in empty homes once. Horrific stuff.
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People don’t think about it but being a realtor can be a quite dangerous profession particularly in places where you have critical housing shortages and a lot of poverty like California.
Squatters have always been a problem but it really blossomed nationwide during the recession due to the sheer volume of homes that went into foreclosure.
In many areas the banks simply don’t have the resources to secure all of the homes or even to inspect them with any frequency and those become ripe for squatters to move in and take over.
Many of those squtters are decent folks just down on their luck but a great many are also professional criminals involved in human and drug trafficking and can be extremely dangerous.
Realty is what I would classify as a high risk profession where the agents should seriously all consider carrying and getting considerable training to be ready and effective with their tools should the need ever arise.