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Warning: You May Not be Safe in Your Own Back Yard

By Alan Gray. NewsBlaze  

The following letter was received from a San Diego family, bearing the brunt of increased crime levels in their formerly quiet neighborhood.

We had a prowler in our back yard early Sat. Morning (4:46 AM). I heard him talking to himself, got up and asked him what he was doing in our backyard, and he said he was really drunk. My husband Carl got up and yelled at him and he started to tear through our back yard like a wild animal. Our back yard is an obstacle course of glass tables, a canopy, tomato cages, bamboo beanpoles, herb garden, and cleaning projects I had staged to deal with the following day.

He ran into our elderly neighbor's back yard, through an area that a fence fell years ago, trying to run up an embankment through a thicket of small trees. The neighbor on the other side I know has guns; three others have small children and dogs.

I foolishly ran after him in my long nightgown to try to coax him to the path on the side of my neighbor's house to the street. By the time, he hit the hillside he turned on a dime, charged at me, snarling, "I'm a DOG!" Knocked me to the ground with his body on top of mine and BIT ME on the upper arm! I screamed bloody murder, Then "Carl, HE BIT ME, CALL THE POLICE!" By then I remember my hands pushing his face, And telling him, "You are a man!"

He scrambled off of me and I blank on where he ran to next. I don't even recall the path I took or my feet touching the ground to my back door, I just remember my back screen door to the patio falling off its tracks as I tried to get in, closing the glass door, and Carl finally dialed 911.

By then I was washing this human bite in the kitchen sink and within a minute or two a young La Mesa police officer arrived by himself in our cul de Sac. We ran outside, saw him alone, I showed him the bite, and said he needed backup. DO NOT GO IN THE BACK YARD WITHOUT IT. I ran back in the house to continue to wash my arm, (5-20 minutes minimum with soapy water for human bites, I know this because my son was bitten by a dog at the age of three and we got to spend several days in the hospital...)

Anyway, the backup was a young blond female police officer, about 5'3" bless her heart, and the two proceeded to try to take down this burly 5'4" strapping tank of a guy, apparently military, stoned out of his mind, in the squash patch of my garden. They pepper sprayed him, tazered him several times, trying to get the cuffs on, and his hands were still free. I told Carl, call 911 for backup because this could get out of hand. He did, and three young backup police officers arrived, sirens blaring, running across the street to my neighbor's house, I ran outside and they were in my backyard piling on top of this guy who is still screaming on the top of his lungs.

Maybe 20 minutes later they hauled him out of my garden and into the cul de sac on the asphalt, him screaming continuously. Instead of taking him to jail, they took him to a hospital. The fire department arrived, took one look at my arm, and said, "Promise me you will get a tetanus booster. Or we could take you in an ambulance to the hospital at your expense." I had no problem making that promise.

I filed a police report, got photographed and then when it was all over, went outside, inspected my yard, looked at my torn fruit trees and plants, totally freaked when I saw how the glass table he flipped had broken, (Shards were sword-shaped, within arms length of where the struggle had taken place, which means that everything could have gone horribly wrong...), figured out that these kids aren't getting paid enough for this kind of risk, and wondered where in the hell were all my neighbors during all of ungodly mess. All their lights were off... I was really miffed.

The next day we found a clinic in El Cajon open, got the shot and a prescription for antibiotics, and the bad news of asking for a blood test report from the perpetrator for Hepatitis A, B, and C and HIV! (And when we called, the La Mesa dispatcher said that even first responders do not get that information, due to privacy issues! I need to go and get tested on my own dime!)

Neighbors across the street on the corner greeted me on my arrival back from the clinic. They told me that they were awakened 3 times that morning prior to my experience; the last was at 4:30 AM. The husband got up, heard voices and thought he had scared them off. They also had a weird experience when they returned home from a birthday celebration to find a halogen light bulb on their driveway around 11 PM.

Yesterday, another neighbor called to check on me, and said she had someone in her driveway that stole a light bulb that she left for the repairman on her stoop and whoever it was also shredded her newspaper. Well, the newspaper isn't delivered into 4ish or so in the morning... Which means this guy was probably in our cul de sac the entire night!

I also got word that a neighbor on one of the side streets came out to see what the heck was going on during all the sirens blaring. That soothed my ruffled feathers considerably.

Today we get a notice from the La Mesa Police Officer's Association informing us that Sandag reports that La Mesa has the highest crime rate per capita, in all of San Diego County. Not only that, nine experienced LMPD left for greener pastures due to low pay. That means that 1/3 of the police force has less than 2 years experience and more are leaving... meeting tomorrow at 6:30, I will be there.

I feel like while all of this was happening I pretty much left my body. It took a couple of days to settle back in. I have a black eye from where he hit me with his head. The brute force of his body slammed into my chest. I'm having a hard time getting a full breath so he must have bruised my lung. Carl brought home bronchitis a couple days ago, so to cough is very uncomfortable. And now I'm feeling it in my back where I landed.

The worst part is having everyone tell you, "you shouldn't have gone outside." The young police officer who took the report said I should have taken a baseball bat or a skillet or something! I really think if I did, he would have killed me with it. I can see the headlines now, Vegetarian Beaten to Death With Cast-iron Skillet!

I'm hoping some higher good comes from this. At least he didn't traumatize my neighbor's kids for life. My adult neighbors may be another story.

Well, that's the news from here.

Editor's Note: Its a sobering tale, so just remember, don't go outside, call 911 instead.