The Odds a Naked Homeowner Will Stop an Intruder at Gunpoint:
Ninety-one-year-old Robert E. Thompson of Lake Worth, Florida didn’t bother getting dressed when he heard a commotion in his backyard this September, which explains why police found him naked and pointing a loaded gun at an intruder.
Police say Thompson woke up, jumped out of bed, and grabbed his .38 caliber revolver after 26-year-old Jose Pascual climbed his backyard fence. Pascual had already been met by Thompson’s charging dog, Rett, a Rottweiler mix, according to the local CBS affiliate, Channel 12.
After firing some warning shots to keep the suspect at bay, Thompson called the police. Deputies told Channel 12 they found Pascual on the back porch by the pool, drunk and trembling.
Although this may seem like a strange story, the odds say this chain of events is not that unlikely.
The odds a man sleeps in the nude are 1 in 3.23. The odds a man owns a firearm are 1 in 2.38. And a burglary happens every 14.2 seconds in the United States, according to the FBI’s online Crime Clock.
Although overall property crimes have been decreasing in the United States (down .8% from 2007 to 2008; and down 5.3% from 2004 to 2008), burglaries (a subset of property crimes as measured by the FBI) have been on the increase (up 2% from 2007 to 2008; up 3.6% from 2004 to 2008; and up 5.8% from 1999 to 2008).
And Rett’s role is not uncommon, either: 37% of American households own dogs.
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