Low-Tech Security...

...in a High-Crime Neighborhood

From FreeRepublic.com:

I had a friend who went to USC many years ago. Since student housing cost an arm and a leg, he decided to rent a house in Watts (yes, THAT Watts), because it was cheap -- even though there were drug dealers openly selling drugs on the corners half a block away.

Before moving in, he went to the range, and poked holes in paper targets with his shotgun. When he moved in, he used these paper targets to cover the windows of his house.

When he arrived home every day, he would park in his driveway, run around to the trunk of his car, get out his shotgun, load it, and then walk in the house. When he answered the door, he would have his shotgun in his hand. When he left for school, he would walk out with a loaded shotgun, look around, then unload it and put it into the trunk.

One evening, a car drove by and its passenger shot at his house. He grabbed his shotgun, filled with slugs and buckshot, and fired back, blowing out car windows and blowing off various pieces of the car as it sped off. When the police arrived, and asked him what happened, he just told them he was defending himself.

When he went out the next morning, he noticed that the drug dealers had moved waaaay down the block. When he arrived that afternoon, he noticed that half a dozen neighboring houses now also sported paper targets with holes covering their windows.

It very rapidly turned into a very peaceful neighborhood where he could study in peace and quiet in his low rent house.

(Found at Bill St. Clair's.)
Good one!