Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Tipped off by pet parrot, Dallas homeowner shoots burglar in the act
Email
|
Print
|
Tell us your story
|
Comments (22)
|
DALLAS — At 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dennis Baker, 59, was minding his own business, fast asleep, when Salvador, his Mexican red-headed pet parrot, began saying "hello". "Hello hello hello." Baker, recognizing even in his sleep that "hello" is what the parrot says when he sees someone, and keeping in mind that Baker had been burglarized four times in the past month, arose and got his gun, and found a man, one John Woodson, 46, in his garage, loading up loot. So he shot him.
According to the DMN, Baker owns several birds. Also, when the police arrived, the parrot said "hello" to them, too.
Posted by T.G.
See more stories in:
Find...
Today
GlamAmour's Bewitching Burlesque Remember Abe Weinstein's Colony Club? How about Jack Ruby's Carousel? Dang, you're old. (And dirty!) Hearken back to the golden days of Dallas burlesque with women who tease to please. More info
Blogs
- Deli-cious irony
Square Pegs - I so wish we had laser eyes
Square Pegs - Why I think the ecomomy is even scarier than I thought
Square Pegs
Latest comments
- TravisRex on Dallas' old Parkland Hospital complex will soon reopen as office buildings: I wonder if SWAT and the DEA will still use it for training exercises? I suppose the receptionists w...
- lisagetti on State Fair vendor shows a random act of kindness: Yes, Rich and I loooovvve the Chili Parlor; now even more so! Go Tom! They have been showing us kind...
- Mike Orren on Why I think the ecomomy is even scarier than I thought: *Auto makers have struggled in the past months but they are nowhere near the bottom. The next year i...
- xdavidwattsx on Why I think the ecomomy is even scarier than I thought: Agreed. Auto makers have struggled in the past months but they are nowhere near the bottom. The next...
Latest reviews
- Collin Gouldin on Ricky Ray's BBQ: The food was pretty good, but maybe they should stick to catering… The store front wasn’t very org...
- 1concernedcitizen on Fat Joe's Pizza (Allen): Believe me as an overweight person I know good pizza and I promise you the pizza was nasty. I am not...
- 1concernedcitizen on El Fenix Mexican Restaurant (Dallas / Inwood & Lemmon): Raise the flag and bring more of those great desserts…...
Comments
CastleHills Anonymous
...and in further news, local pet stores reported a run on "watch-parrots."
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Lisa Lawrence Merritt Verified
Brilliant.
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
kirk Anonymous
I am so glad that Dallas-area residents are skipping that pesky step of calling the police when there is a suspected intruder on their property.
Every man, woman and child in Texas should feel free to fire a gun when someone has trespassed on his or her property. If an intoxicated neighbor or musician happens to get in the way, well so be it. It's our Constitutional right to be armed, and our right as Texans not to have to retreat or even warn anyone before responding with deadly force when faced with an intruder in our home, vehicle or business.
Shoot first, and let the grand jury ask pro forma questions later, if they feel like it.
Any truth to the rumor that we're going to outsource our policing to Blackwater?
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
viva_la_malcriada Anonymous
Let's hear some love for our feathered brethren! All you need are a couple of parrots and a gaggle of attack geese and security-wise, you'll be set for life. Cool...
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
bryan1788 Anonymous
@Kirk - Hmmm...Retreating in my own home and leaving the fate of myself and loved ones to an intruder. Spoken like a true patriot!
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Does anyone know of stats comparing shootings of an intruder vs accidental family/friend or drunkard?
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Aaron Johnson Verified
RETREAT??? WARN THEM??? Did the burgler warn the homeowner??? Will an armed intruder retreat once they know you can identify them and will press charges sending them to jail? ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO PUT YOUR LIFE IN THE HANDS OF ANOTHER PERSON WHO IS ROBBING YOU!!! Do you really want to risk having the perpretrator be able to come back and kill you or your family because he's afraid you know his face and will testify against him IF he's picked up? Keith, the problem is NOT the one's following the rules, It's the ones who are NOT FOLLOWING THE RULES that are the problem!!! When they cease to be a problem, then the shooting of them will cease to be a problem!!! Would you go around telling women that they shouldn't fight back if someone attempts to rape them, absolutely not.
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Anonymous
I think it's fair to at least give an intruder a warning shot--say, to the abdomen.
12 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
amandax9362 Anonymous
Kirk, if a intoxicated neighbor bangs on my door and rattles the door knob like he is trying to get in, I am going to defend myself. I don't care if he is a beloved local musician or not. Carter's death was a result of his own actions. As for giving no warning, Carter did get warnings. I don't know if the man in this story did. It doesn't matter because it's HIS PROPERTY! The warning should have been the man he shot 3 weeks ago. I am tired of people not being held accountable for their own actions. You live in Texas, people have guns. If you don't break into their homes, they wont shoot you.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
kirk Anonymous
Hell, no, Scott! They're the ones in my garage or my warehouse, or standing on my back porch. Why the hell should I bother with a warning shot, or yelling at them to get off my property, or going after them with a baseball bat, or using mace, or calling the cops who are probably going to take an hour to come anyway? I'm gonna shoot to kill, because you know how dangerous a wounded person can be, especially if he doesn't follow the rules. And most especially if he don't speak English.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
kirk Anonymous
Amandax9362:
"You live in Texas, people have guns. If you don't break into their homes, they wont shoot you."
Yep. Take, for example, this guy http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedconte... who was breaking into someone's home. This is exactly why every Texan should have a gun in their home.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
amandax9362 Anonymous
Sorry Kirk but that is a big difference in circumstances. That link is for a cops going to a criminals house, and the criminal being a CRIMINAL shot the cop. Not some innocent person thinking the cop was wanting to rob/attack them.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rick Yost Verified
Do we know whether it was a fatal shot?
My business, my vehicles, my home- these are all things that I connect directly to my family. Threatening these things in any way, is seen in my eyes as a threat to my family. There will be swift and serious consequences- without question, without warning. "Listen for the click."
Your warning is in YOUR knowledge that you are doing something you certainly should not.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Anonymous
I always thought De Sica's "Bicycle Thief" would've been much more engaging, had the protagonist been well-armed.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
kirk Anonymous
"Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," too!
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rawlins Gilliland Verified
I'm all for preserving one's castle, but I've been robbed and I've also been taken hostage by someone with intent to kill me....... Neither is acceptable. Both are traumatic. Both undermine one's feelings about many things of importance. But they are not the same.
FYI: I would not shoot to with intent to kill someone breaking into my car. I'd shoot AT them maybe, (as was the apparent intent recently when the intruder was banging on the door and the man shot 'above his head' not knowing he was quite tall.) But someone trying to harm my family, dead on arrival.
That said, to each his own. I do however note that lately it's not whether someone had a gun in a news story, but rather, more or less prefaced with 'they went for their guns........' narrative. I've lived long enough to know this did not used to be regarded as the American 'norm'.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
SonyaBlade Anonymous
Kirk Brewer? Seriously? I mean, you are joking right? Seriously? Kirk? 'Cmon, really? Kirk!!! 'Cmon!!!! Seriously???
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Bemused Anonymous
*I've been robbed and I've also been taken hostage by someone with intent to kill me*
Gilliand, I don't know whether to be horror stricken or charmed by your stark honesty, if, in fact, you write with veracity. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and remain in awe of your epic experiences. You really must compose an autobiography, the groundwork of which you have dilineated in these blogs.
I agree with Gilliand that the media's treatment of the fellow in question is grossly unacceptable. I concur also that the media's approach would have been drastically different had the gunslinger been a minority female assailed by a white male. Based upon the extant evidence, this chap had every right to pull the trigger.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rick Yost Verified
Rawlins- I don't know if it's the new norm, but it does seem to happen more often lately.
I don't know if it's just that I hear more news now because of the communication advancements (and I sound like my father here) but there are some real nut-cases out there- more than there used be. But I could be wrong.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Bemused Anonymous
but there are some real nut-cases out there- more than there used be.
These are dark, uncertain times, and people are confused and afraid. The family unit has dissipated, and our sense of community has waned. Isolation of spirit breeds misanthropy, a condition that produces self-righteous madness. It's only natural that manifold loons are among us. This is why our solidarity as a species is imperative.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Miller Verified
"our solidarity as a species"
I think that idea sadly went away sometime in late 2001.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Stephanie Hindall Verified
Kirk, as a female who studies the art of kung fu, who has been assaulted more than once, and who believes that self-defense is the only reason for violence, let me tell you that I would shoot the bastard in a heartbeat - no questions asked. Oh wait, I don't own a gun, and I'm Texan...oh crap, there goes that stereotype. Protect the homestead okay, Kirk? I'm pretty sure burglars know that they're doing something wrong and that when you do something wrong there are consequences. If they don't know that already, well, it's high time they learned.
11 months, 4 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Post a comment
(Requires free PegasusNews.com account.)