Special offer

Safety of Suburban Streets

By
Real Estate Agent with Real Estate

This morning I woke with the letter "S" on my mind and SAFETY has been in my thoughts all week. 

Monday a horrific crime was committed in Cheshire, Connecticut.  Two career criminals that were recently paroled spotted a Mother & Daughter in the local super market Sunday night and stalked them.  Reports do not mention any contact that evening but they followed the pair and found out where they lived.  Seems they returned to the area in the middle of the night, left their car over a mile away and walked to the home.

Cheshire is typical of many surrounding towns where crime is never given much thought.  Many people leave their homes unlocked and enjoy the peaceful tranquillity of suburban life.  At 3:00am the criminals entered through a basement door and terrorized the family for hours.  The father & husband, a local doctor was severely beaten in the basement of his modest colonial home on Sorghum Mill Drive.  His 48 year old wife and 11 year old daughter were sexually assaulted.  No details have been released concerning the 17 year old girl.

When the bank opened Monday morning one of the intruders forced Jennifer Hawke-Petit to withdraw $15,000 and she was able to alert the teller of trouble.  Within a half hour she was strangled in her home, her two daughters were tied to their beds as these ruthless x-cons set the house a blaze.  When officers arrived one heard a girl's scream but both died of smoke inhalation.  Dr. Petit was staggering out of the home as the suspects fled ramming the police cruiser that was in their way.

"Suspects" doesn't quite seem like the appropriate word to describe these guys.  They were witnessed by police leaving the burning home in the stolen vehicle owned by the Petits and crashed into two more police cruisers in their attempt to escape...

This is clearly a case where Deadly Force would be completely justifiable and in my opinion preferable to the years of appeals that will drag on for this Capital Crime.

Comments(13)

Suzanne Sands
Pavao Real Estate - Somerset, MA
Somerset MA Real Estate

Dan,

What a horrible crime! How sad for this family, my heart goes out to them.

Jul 28, 2007 02:16 AM
No Longer Active
Real Estate - Fallon, MT

Yes.. The doctor was released from the hospital yesterday to attend the funeral.. Cannot image his grief.

Jul 28, 2007 02:55 AM
Sandi Bauman
Chico Homes Real Estate - Chico, CA
Chico CA Realtor

Truly horrible...   in the end, it will be the doctor that suffers the most.  Scary, that it can start as easily as having someone spot you in the grocrery store.

Jul 28, 2007 03:29 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 FHA, CHFA, VA Mortgages - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert
Dan, I can not begin to imagine what the rest of his life will be like, much less to begin to understand what would motivate these two men to do this.  What ever the punishment that awaits is, it will not be enough for what they have done.
Jul 28, 2007 11:12 AM
Teri Eckholm
Boardman Realty - White Bear Lake, MN
REALTOR Serving Mpls/St Paul North & East Metro
Dan--How horrible! It never ceases to amaze me the brutality and callousness of criminals. Our family was a victim of a senseless crime a few years ago...A surreal experience. Being safe, aware and vigilant has never ever been off of my mind since.
Jul 29, 2007 01:58 AM
No Longer Active
Real Estate - Fallon, MT

Sandi... I agree and cannot imagine having to live with those memories.

George... Those two guys deserve a torturous death.  How am I doing with my new mellow side?  :-)

Teri... I know what you mean, we've never experienced any assaults but have had minor theft.  Still remember our day trip to Tijuana when my wife had the camera hanging off her purse.  I have a tendency to nag and be extra cautious but that day I held my tongue and the camera never made it over the border... Only a few hundred bucks but that feeling of invasion is never forgotten.

Jul 29, 2007 02:50 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 FHA, CHFA, VA Mortgages - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert
Dan, your "new mellow side" works great for me in this case. I hope they get experience what they did while they are in prison.
Jul 29, 2007 07:39 AM
Thesa Chambers
West + Main - Bend, OR
Principal Broker - Licensed in Oregon

Stories like this really make you wonder how anyone could think to do something like this.... they certainly are not human - the behaviour of these beasts are totally un-explainable and un-excusable - I had to delete much of my comments - they were starting to sound like a political stance....

Jul 29, 2007 09:00 AM
Sandra Cummings
William Raveis Real Estate - Guilford, CT
Real Estate Agent, Guilford Connecticut

Oh come on Thesa - go for it : )

Sandra

Jul 29, 2007 12:20 PM
No Longer Active
Real Estate - Fallon, MT

Guess I must be sounding pretty political on the Capital Punishment Issue... I say FRY EM', HANG UM' or BURN THEM ON A STAKE...  They deserve No Mercy!

Jul 29, 2007 12:38 PM
Sondra Sheckler Realtor,ABR,SRES,Historic Home Specialst
Coldwell Banker, Award Of Excellence & Million $$ Producer - Knoxville, TN

Dan, I'll catch a lot of flack for what I am about to say because I am certain that there are a "few" success stories, but working with the state for numerous years, seeing these kinds of folks move through our system -- you can pick them out and I am sorry, rehab is just a joke for folks like this

Our justice system is made for criminals -- I've said it for years, I will always say it -- our justice system fails the honest paying, productive citizens and gives folks like this "rights" -- they don't deserve them, they had them and abused them, they don't deserve them now.  This was tragic and could happen in our own homes - -this was a random selection. 

My beautiful 14 year old daughter who is 5'7", blonde hair and blue eyes was nearly assaulted at Walmart, she and my mother had to have police escorts out and I am not sure what happened to those jerks afterwards.  But this one guy followed her while my mother was in the restroom, walked by saying vulgar things to her and THEN went as far to touch her.  She went to store personnel immediately.  .  But let me tell you ONE thing, if I had been there, I would not have left without ripping his eyes out.  He and that whole store would have known who I was, I would not have left quietly, I can assure you of that.  There I said it! Some folks do not deserve to have rights and if there are folks out there that want to voice their opinions, that is fine, but your story is an exact reason as to why, criminals are criminals are criminals, bottom line -- they have NO rights.  I am sorry, this was too long!!!

Aug 05, 2007 02:12 PM
No Longer Active
Real Estate - Fallon, MT
Sondra... Not way to long at all...  I agree with everything you said and believe more people have to start voicing their opinion about the failure of government programs.  Criminals milk the system and laugh at the free ride they get.... Undoubtedly these slugs that are career criminals have no money for a defense so the tax paying citizens get screwed again paying hefty attorney bills for the long drawn out trials and appeals of the blatantly guilty. 
Aug 05, 2007 11:42 PM
Janie Coffey
First Coast Sotheby’s International Realty - Ponte Vedra, FL
Uniting Extraordinary Homes w/ Extraordinary Lives
ughhh, I can't even comment and my stomach is in knots and my throat is tight.  I have an 11 year old daughter and my fear is always night intruders....I can't even imagine I only can pray for their souls now, which I will....
Aug 14, 2007 11:26 PM