You know it was going to happen...criminals taking advantage of the Coronavirus guidelines to wear medical masks to hide their identities during their crimes.
In Arlington Heights, near Chicago, two men are caught on video wearing medical masks to hide their identities to gain entry into a home.
Video released by police was captured by the homeowner's Ring doorbell which, surprisingly, one of the criminals acknowledges as 'a camera' before they gain entry. Although the video is labeled as 'containing violence', the only violent aspect shown is a brief segment of the original video which shows the homeowner chasing one of the invaders out of the home.
The two criminals knock on the door and gain entry when the homeowner answers. You'll hear some raised voices from inside which sound like the criminals trying to intimidate the occupants and the occupants raising an alarm. While the original video is said to have been shared, this version is heavily edited. In this video we only see a man chasing one of the criminals outside, struggle with him as the bad guy goes to the ground and apparently throws punches (it's blurred out) before the criminal escapes.
Cook County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Bradley J. Finnan, 39, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, with murder and home invasion in connection with the break-in. Authorities say he is the man in the video who was chased from the home by the homeowner. Police later caught up with Finnan in Rockford.
His accomplice, Larry D. Brodacz, 58, of Buffalo Grove, was shot dead by the homeowner during a struggle inside the house, in what authorities said was self-defense.
In this story, the motive for the home invasion might have been an outdated notion regarding a large amount of cash in the home.
According to police, Finnan said he met had Brodacz through their shared profession as car salesmen; he admitted telling the older man that he had seen $200,000 in cash in boxes at the address 20 years ago, and thought the money might still be there.
According to the same story above, the homeowners were expecting landscapers which would explain why they let the two men in to the home in the first place.
Regardless of the official police department position, you can almost bet that the homeowners consider this a random home invasion. I'm sure they have no sense of why they were chosen for this crime. This just solidifies something I've seen in the past that you may be attacked for reasons completely outside of your control.
Even though you may not be looking for a fight, the fight might be looking for you.
You might not be able to control being picked for a crime, but you can control how you are going to respond to it, and how sharp your self-defense skills are going to be.
Train accordingly