When a homeowner in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles was awakened by odd noises last weekend, he thought he was dealing with raccoons. So, he went out to look around — but he ended up facing a different kind of masked menace.
According to KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, the homeowner — identified only as “Remi” — came face-to-face with at least three would-be armed robbers in his home and on his balcony.
Remi managed to scare them off by firing at them with his gun, although he’s not sure whether he hit any of them.
The attempted robbery happened at roughly 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
Remi said he was awakened by noises that he initially thought were raccoons on his balcony; the buggers have been getting into his garbage of late.
Instead, he came face-to-face with two robbery suspects, at least one of whom had a gun.
“I see two guys, and one is pulling my … sliding [glass] door open, so … immediately I run toward my bedroom, grab my firearm, and at that moment the door’s already slid open, and I’m just putting rounds straight at the guy,” he told KTTV.
Those two robbers fled, but Remi gave chase, fearing they’d find another way in — and then he came across a third burglar inside his house.
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“So I open my bedroom and there’s a guy literally six feet in front of me,” Remi said.
“He’s in my house already coming towards my bedroom so as soon as he sees me with a gun he starts yelling, I pull out my gun and I start firing inside my own house.”
After firing bullets at that suspect, he took flight as well. Remi returned to his room after calling 911.
“I’m thinking, ‘OK, I’m gonna run out of bullets,’ so I run back to my closet; I have four extra magazines with a first-aid kit, so I grab my magazines, [and] turn the lights off,” he said. “I’m in survival mode.”
Police cleared the scene and while they didn’t find any suspects, they said the men likely entered via the back, where a dirt road leads up a hillside.
A burglary like this happening in Los Angeles, sadly, is hardly a surprise.
In March, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said that robberies involving guns had risen 57 percent from 2020 rates and 60 percent from 2019, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles homicides hit 397 last year, a 50 percent increase from 2019 — and a stark reminder of what happens when someone doesn’t have the ability to fight back.
Police haven’t arrested any suspects in this case, although Remi believes them to be Middle Eastern; while they were wearing masks and hoodies, the homeowner understood one of them yelling “run” in a non-English language that he understood.
He doesn’t know if he’d be able to replicate the performance, however.
“Instincts kicked in at that moment,” Remi told KTTV.
“I don’t know if I could ever do it again. It was just very instinctual.”
Thankfully, he had the firepower to back up his instinct.
