Key Takeaways
- On September 11, a Philadelphia resident fought off a man who forced entry into his home near 20th and Morris Streets.
- Surveillance footage showed the suspect lurking around the area before he attempted the break-in.
- The victim managed to fend off the suspect, who fled the scene empty-handed.
- This incident highlights the importance of being vigilant at home, where threats can occur unexpectedly.
- Philadelphia Police have released the video and are searching for the suspect, who is wanted for robbery and home invasion.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
PHILADELPHIA, PA — A Philadelphia resident fought off a man who forced his way through the front door of a home near 20th and Morris Streets on the morning of September 11, and the suspect ran off with nothing, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
Police say surveillance video picked up the suspect at about 6:20 a.m., skulking around the 20th and Morris area in the 17th District, peering into homes and walking the alleyways. He kept that up for roughly ten minutes. Then, in the department’s words, he “spotted his prey putting out the trash and moved in.”
The suspect forced his way through the front door. A struggle followed. The victim fought him off. He fled the house empty handed, police say. The release does not say whether the victim was injured.
Ten minutes on camera, checking windows, working the alleys. That is not a crime of opportunity that fell out of the sky. He was selecting, and the moment he picked is one nearly everyone reading this has every week: hands full, attention on a trash can, a door at your back. That is the window a predator waits for, and this one waited for exactly that.
This is not a defensive gun use story. As far as the record shows, the resident met a man coming through the front door with nothing but the decision to fight, and won. That decision is the whole point of every mindset piece I write. The gun is a tool. Willingness to fight back the instant the threat is real is what makes any tool useful, and this resident had that without one.
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This is the reason I carry. It is also another good case for carrying at home. Most people picture the threat somewhere else, a parking lot, a gas station after dark. This one came at 6:20 in the morning, on the front step, in the middle of a chore. Home is where the guard drops and the pistol goes in a nightstand. There are situations where you will have time to get to a nightstand safe. A man coming through the door while you are standing outside with a trash bag is not one of them. I know most people who carry every day outside the house do not carry inside it. This is a good example of why that is worth rethinking.
The Philadelphia Police Department released the surveillance video on September 25 and has the man listed as a wanted suspect for robbery and home invasion. As of that release, he had not been identified or arrested.
