This surveillance video taken at a home in Raleigh, NC, in December 2012, captures the creepy factor of home invasion. Note: Watch to 5:25 on the video to capture the gratifying “gotcha” moment when the perpetrator realizes he has been caught on camera.

GOOD NEWS: Since this video was posted — and within a week — two of the three criminals shown had been arrested. MORE GOOD NEWS: This video has already been viewed over 2.5 MILLION times.

On December 15, 2012, the Farrans appeared on a Weekly Radio Show in Fairfax, Virginia, “On the Commons.” The show is dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory home owner associations.

Here are some of the comments shared by Maria and Sam during the hour-long interview.

Maria: It’s hard to [be engaged in a battle with an HOA] so do anything you can to avoid it. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money. Get a good attorney and make sure you have plenty of money. We were told in the beginning we would lose — we would lose everything, including our home.

Sam: We have an arrogant board that never wanted to be challenged. Our case started because we challenged them.. probably a dozen people before us packed up and left the community [rather than fight back].

Maria: We got a letter saying the size of a sign in our yard was wrong. There is a rule that we must have a 1-foot x 1-foot sign. So we cut it in half. The next day, after the election, we took it down. [Later] we saw the emails the board exchanged during the discovery process. [We learned that] the board felt this was a “teachable moment.” [We weren't troublemakers]. We’d always gotten along with everyone in the community.

Sam: I was president of the board once and on the board for other years. My priority was to help the community. But over the years, people with common sense and logic left the board and were replaced by a few hardened people plus several followers. The question [of the new board] became: “Who are we going to write a letter to? Who are we going to fine?”

Maria: So, the board called a well-known legal expert who offered to come in and speak to them for free to help them “enforce the rules.” The board then “came up with a resolution.” There was no meeting, no discussion. The end result was the ability to fine us [for having posted the sign. [During the long court proceedings] we had great judges: Nordlund, Roush, Ney, Thacher — fair and square, legal professionals. We got a fair deal. When you buy into an association it is a contract, but both sides — including the board — have to abide by them.

Sam: We were in the right. We had a plan all along. It was our money we were spending; the board was spending others’ money. If we had started losing, we would have stopped. But we never lost. We thought the other side would come to their senses and stop, but that didn’t happen. It was not only the Board.

Maria: People don’t like conflict. [Neighbors] would say, “we want to support you, but we don’t want to get involved.”

Sam: We found bullets in our back yard. I have lived through a Civil War, so the bullets didn’t scare me.

Maria: We had the police and the county inspectors called on us. One of the county inspectors said, “You go get them [the board].” They don’t like HOAs. One of the people we talked to said, “We get fined for having spider webs on our windows.” People think HOAs are a joke and we were silly for fighting. Until it happens to you and it’s your life, your house. It’s America. It’s our relationship with our neighbors and it’s precious. And HOAs destroy communities.

Sam: The basic fight started with the sign and then our roof was leaking and then we wanted to put up a deck.

Maria: We wanted to put up a new roof and we went to a meeting and that’s when this “due process resolution” was in there. The idea of the people on the board running around with clipboards and then fining people — this was so unAmerican to me. So we went to our attorney who told us neither the state law nor the covenants allow [a fine created by this secret resolution]. The board denied us our architectural request for the roof leak repair approval and they fined us for the sign issue. Judge Thacher not only denied them the demur on the fines, we were able to come in afterwards and file for summary judgement. What he wrote was so bad for them and good for us that we were able to come in and file for summary judgement. By then we had a lot of discovery where we found out how the board made their decisions. The board then started doing all these things in fighting us that [added up to] were financial mismanagement. So we filed another lawsuit. All along there were motions to compel and the [board] fought us every step of the way. They spent $180,000 fighting for $15/day fines, which they were never going to use.

Sam: HOA is a business with no customer service.

Maria: Judge Nordlund wrote 10 pages about the financial mismanagement. That opinion was dramatic. I don’t know why they fought on things they were obviously going to lose on. I don’t know why they were doing that: It wasn’t a business decision, it wasn’t logical. I think it’s because they were spending [the association's] money. So, then we went to trial on the architectural issues. It was just four days November 14-16, 2011. Judge Nordlund’s [opinion] questioned the [HOA president's] credibility, saying, “The President was just totally ignorant of his responsibilities … his decisions came from pure arrogance.” So we won that and they were enjoined from keeping us from building our decks.

Sam: Before the bankruptcy, we were told [the association] might go to the Supreme Court or declare bankruptcy. They did both. Their fight was like the Japanese soldiers in the second World War who stayed in their caves.

Maria: So [the HOA] declared Chapter 7 … they thought we would never get our money. But instead they have had to put up sale of the [neighborhood] common area to pay us. Still, we are not completely whole [financially]. But they did not win on anything.

Sam: I think their strategy was to run us out of money … or to shame us. One guy told me that people get shamed by the association into leaving [the community].

Maria: If you are thinking of fighting your association never get personal, do not take it personally. They will try to shame you, to isolate you, to hurt you. But never write or say anything they can use to hurt you in court. We learned a lot about people: who’s loyal, who is your friend, who wants to help but doesn’t want to make it their fight.

Sam: The first advice: Don’t buy a home with an HOA.

Maria: These associations will crumble on their own. I was reading about some of these [HOA] regulations in an area in Richmond .. about the color of your house or to have to ask somebody in order to do anything. In our neighborhood, another batch of houses — also called Olde Belhaven — were built before ours, in the mid 60s. They have no association there and guess what? That community has higher housing values than our section. It isn’t HOAs that protect values. It’s location. Here, we have now done away with the association, we’ve built our deck and repair our roof and we’re very happy. The board has been dissolved and as far as I’m concerned, it’s over. All hell has not let loose and the houses in the area are selling without the association. We’re happy and so grateful to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which confirmed Judges Thacher and Nordlund, which our association had called “biased and unprofessional.”

Maria: [If you're going to challenge the HOA] put it in perspective and if you have to walk away, walk away. If you can settle, settle. It’s hard out there; there’s not a lot of information. This [radio] show let’s people know they’re not alone.

Sam: It’s like David and Goliath. Your HOA and the CAI (Community Associations Institute) is big business.

Maria: The people in power are down in Richmond. Be in touch with your state legislators. They are down there rewriting the laws to respond to people winning [against HOAs].

Sam: At the age I’m at now, I’ve never been sued before. It’s not my personality. But even a squirrel — when you put it in a corner — it will fight back.

More Comments

For more details and background, read an article — and the pursuant 5,000+ comments — published in The Washington Post on February 9.

For a podcast of the full “On the Commons” broadcast, listen here.

Additional analysis of homeowner association law can be found here and here.

This comprehensive website explores the facts and factors surrounding criminal activity, and common nuisances, invading homes across the U.S. — without exaggerating or sensationalizing the numbers.

What is a “home invasion” robbery and how is it different from other crimes? How often do they occur and, most importantly, what can be done to prevent them?

HomeInvasionNews.com seeks answers to these and other questions about what law-enforcement officials and the media across the country call “home invasions” –generally defined as the entry by one or more armed intruders of an occupied house, apartment or condo (usually by force) for the purpose of robbing those inside.

HomeInvasionNews.com also explores the common nuisances often to blame for disturbing the peace: barking dogs, loud or messy neighbors, hoarding, and other illicit activity occurring around the corner or down the street.

HomeInvasionNews.com offers an online forum that:
• Tracks incidents. HomeInvasionNews.com offers home invasion incidents with commentary designed to help separate fact from fiction and hysteria from reality.

• Dispels myths. The Internet is brimming with reports that distort the truth about home invasion incidents – usually for the purpose of selling home-security products. HomeInvasionNews.com strives to educate and inform – without inciting fear.

• Follows trends. Our research has revealed interesting trends about common targets, commonly stolen items (prescription drugs and valuables), common motives, and even tactics thugs use to force their way inside.

• Shares expert advice about which habits and strategies can help residents secure their homes, as well as tips for dealing with difficult neighbors.

HomeInvasionNews.com presents content based on research, curation, and commentary by Nancy Rathbun Scott. Nancy is a longtime journalist, writer, researcher and blogger who became interested in home-related crimes when a family member’s home was twice broken into by burglars. Unsettled by these incidents, Nancy sought to learn more about the nature and prevalence of home invasion crimes.HomeInvasionNews.com is Nancy’s effort to explore — and bring impartial analysis to — a topic of concern to both the public and media, alike.

Contact Nancy at nancy@homeinvasionnews.com.

About 11 p.m. on Sunday night, the actor and his wife Idinia Menzel were just returning from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Diggs had reportedly been dancing the night away.

The couple heard somebody trying to break into their house. Diggs confronted the intruder, Hassan Juma, who ran up the street toward a second man waiting in a parked car. The driver took off before his partner in crime could catch a ride, though. Meanwhile, Diggs caught up with the 20-year-old man, and held him for about 20 minutes until police showed up.

An LAPD spokesman wasn’t sure how 42-year-old Diggs managed to hold the invader. “The suspect tried to run away, but [Diggs] chased him down the street and was able to detain him until police arrived. At this time, I don’t know exactly what he did to the suspect to detain him.”

Diggs is the second Hollywood actor to chase down a home invader. LLCoolJ did the same in August.

Here are just a few of the stories we’ve come across recently.

1. January 4, 2013, Loganville, GA
A woman  hiding in her attic with her two 9-year old twins shot an intruder multiple times with her .38 revolver.

2. January 7, 2013, New Orleans, LA
One of two perpetrators who broke into a house was shot by the man who lived there.

3. January 16, 2013, York County, PA
Two people broke into Douglas E. Downs’ home, but were thwarted by Downs’ dog long enough for the homeowner to grab the handgun under his chair and shoot one of the men several times, first in the chest and then in the head. Peaches, a small, tan “jug” – Jack Russell terrier and pug mix – knew something wasn’t right, Downs said. Having been burglarized numerous times over the years, he got fed up. “I just got tired of being robbed … I just thought, ‘I’m not taking it anymore.’”

4. December 22, 2012, Sacramento, CA
A man was killed during a home invasion shooting. One man died at the scene and three others were injured; they were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Be Careful What and How You Read
Finally, there’s the story of a 15-year-old boy protecting himself and his 12-year-old sister from a home invasion in Harris County, Texas, back in June 2010.

Home alone with his sister, this boy used his Dad’s AR15 assault rifle to shoot home invaders. Both of the two intruders were taken to the hospital. Neighbors said burglars had recently struck the house next door, stealing “everything they had inside.”

In the face of pending gun control legislation two and a half years later, this story has “broken out” again and is being “reported on” and repeated across the Internet on countless blogs and local sites, presumably in defense of assault rifle ownership — and most certainly in an effort to whip up anti-gun control sentiment.

• January 10, 2013
• January 10, 2013
• January 10, 2013
• January 11, 2013

Are Reports Like These Having An Impact?
Consider the sentiment expressed by a man living up the block from a home invasion victim. The home invasions took place around Thanksgiving 2012, in Houston, TX,  where crews of bad guys wearing masks and carrying guns bashed down doors in the night or early morning hours, attacking Houston-area homes at least four times. Such teams attacked Houston-area homes at least four times. Their attacks left three people dead and a boy missing a finger. “I’m not nervous. I’m waiting,” said electrician Robert Young as he clutched a military-style assault rifle outside his home.

Should you shoot back? Some states say  you can, others say not. This post from Home Invasion News offers some guidance, but please check the laws in your own state before you pull the trigger.

Lately, we’ve noticed a trend worth writing about: Increasingly, it seems, both victims and perpetrators of home invasions are getting shot. We have no idea whether or not this apparent trend is related to the widespread and agitated conversations about gun control following a rash of mass shootings. Perhaps increasing poverty and bad economic conditions are making home invaders more desperate. Or maybe it just seems like people are getting shot more often during home invasion.

Here, we’ve gathered some recent reports of residents who’ve been shot. We’ve also written a separate article related to perpetrators who’ve been shot. These reports are from around the country. So, what do you think? Are people getting shot more often during home invasions? To us, it looks that way.

1. January 10, Kansas City, MO
A man is shot inside his home during a possible home invasion robbery.

2. January 6, 2013, Laurel, DE
A 21-year-old man was shot multiple times by armed intruders.

3. January 4, 2013, Fairburn, GA
A woman hears someone breaking into her home, hides in the closet, is discovered by perpetrators and shot multiple times.

4. December 23, 2012, Cleveland, OH
Two males entered the victim’s home, shooting and killing him.

5. December 22, 2012, Anne arundel County, MD
A 27-year old man was shot during a home invasion in Brooklyn Park. Police say two men entered his home with a gun and tried to conduct a robbery.

6. December 20, Calera, AL
A Hispanic family of four, including a couple and two children ages 9 and 4 months, were inside at the time of the invasion. No one was hurt.

7. December 19, 2012, Hartford, CT
A 31-year-old man suspected of shooting two people during a home invasion was arrested Tuesday. Norman Jennings is charged with first-degree assault and criminal use of a firearm. He is in custody with bail set at $500,000.

8. December 18, 2012, Ft. Washington, MD
A man was shot in the back during an attempted early morning home invasion. The perpetrators demanded money and jewelry, fleeing before police arrived.

9. December 11, Central, SC
A 23-year-old student at Clemson University was shot dead during a home invasion. At  least four suspects robbed the home.

10. December 9, 2012, McDonough, GA
Police in McDonough are searching for two people in connection with a home invasion that killed a woman and injured her husband.

11. November 25, 2012, Houston, TX
A crew of bad guys bashing down doors in the night or early morning hours, wearing masks and carrying guns, attacked Houston-area homes at least four times in two weeks. The attacks left three people dead and a boy missing a finger.

So what happens to the criminals who shoot during a home invasion? Usually, they get caught. In Orlando, FL, it took law enforcement four months to find all the perpetrators who took part in a September home invasion, but all have now been arrested.

Describing Earl Lytle and his wife as a “tough, strong couple,” newscasters at FOX40 TV, noted that the couple came face to face with three gunman who burst into the Lytle’s home, breaking the door, wielding pepper spray, and yelling, “Get on the floor, we’re gonna kill you right here.”

It was late, Earl was sleeping. “They knew what they wanted … Everybody knows I collect coins,” Lytle said, “But I don’t have anything of major value here. They got away with $500 worth of coin, all common, but worth ‘absolutely nothing,’” he said.

At one point, when Lytle’s wife called 911, one intruder grabbed the phone from her and pushed down the receiver. She reported that she picked the phone up again and redialed 911. The police found no sign of bullets, though the intruders brandished guns and fired two shots, which Lytle says “must have been from a ‘starter gun.’”

The intruders wore masks, white t-shirts, and gloves, precluding the police finding fingerprints.

In general, what are home invaders looking for? In the vast majority of cases, one or more of the following five items are reported to have been the target of home invasion theft :

1. Cash

2. Drugs (both prescription and illegal)

3. Credit cards

4. Jewelry

5. Electronics

Bottomline? If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it. Hide it.

These were the words found in a 1995 article printed in The bNet blog hosted by Harvard University’s Business School. The article was prompted by an FBI-issued  bulletin about HIR (Home Invasion Robbery) in 1995.

The bNet blog wrote about the topic at length, acknowledging that, “Within the criminal justice community, considerable confusion still surrounds this relatively new crime phenomenon. Attempts to introduce the concept of home invasion robbery into the bureaucratic mainstream of the criminal justice system have failed to clarify the issue, primarily because of inevitable comparisons to the crime of burglary. This confusion often compromises statistical analyses and makes historical data collection nearly impossible because many incidents of HIR routinely are misclassified as burglaries.”

Things were getting worse in many major cities 10 years later in 2006, according to this February 12, 2006, report in the New York Times.

Now read this headline  from an Austin, TX newspaper: Austin Violent Crime Hits A Six-Year High. That headline was 16 years later, on March 4, 2011.

It may seem to many of us that violent crime has been on a steady uptick since at least 1995. With the American economy in collapse since early 2008 and the new underclass of “permanently unemployed” growing, shouldn’t violent crime be increasing?

Until 2012, that hadn’t happened. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report tabulates all reported crime nationally annually. A preliminary report covering the first half of 2011 indicated total violent crime was still going down, having falling about about 4 percent in 2011. The most recent Preliminary SemiAnnualUniform Crime Report for 2012 released on January 14, however, paints a very different picture. “Statistics released today in the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report indicate that the number of violent crimes reported in the first six months of 2012 increased 1.9 percent when compared with figures from the first six months of 2011. The number of property crimes increased 1.5 percent for the same time frame. The report is based on information from more than 13,300 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six comparable months of data to the FBI in the first six months of 2011 and 2012.”

A number of articles published in major news outlets have reported the statistical increase in 2012, particularly as related to violent crime:

USAToday: The violent crime rate went up 17% last year, ending a general decline in violence that began nearly 20 years ago, according to a new federal survey of crime victims … The Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey also found an 11% increase in the rate of property crimes, including household burglaries and car theft.

Fox News: Violent crimes unexpectedly jumped 18 percent last year, the first rise in nearly 20 years, and property crimes rose for first time in a decade. But academic experts said the new government data fall short of signaling a reversal of the long decline in crime.

Daily Mail (UK):

For the first time in 20 years, the number of violent crimes increased, up 18 percent from last year, a new report reveals … It was the first year-to-year increase for violent crime since 1993, marking the end of a long string of declines. Violent crime fell by 65 percent since 1993, from 16.8 million to 5.8 million last year.

In addition, household burglaries rose 14 percent, from 3.2million to 3.6million. Similarly, the number of thefts jumped by 10 percent, from 11.6 million to 12.8 million.

New York Times:

The rate of U.S. violent crime went up last year for the first time in nearly two decades due to a jump in assaults, the Justice Department said on Wednesday … Data collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in telephone surveys showed a 22 percent increase in assaults, pushing up the overall rate for violent crime for the first time since 1993.

CNN:  The rate of U.S. violent crime went up last year for the first time in nearly two decades due to a jump in assaults, the Justice Department said on Wednesday … Data collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in telephone surveys showed a 22 percent increase in assaults, pushing up the overall rate for violent crime for the first time since 1993.

In Wayne County, Alabama, three home invaders gained access to a residence when they approached saying they were conducting a survey. One of the three males brandished a firearm and demanded money, while the third went inside. Jewelry and some other items were stolen.

In Jersey City, New Jersey, it was four UPS guys.. except it wasn’t. This home invasion featured a group of armed thugs pretending to have a UPS delivery for the victim. None of the home invaders was uniformed, though one did have on a brown shirt. Fortunately for the homeowner, he got the message as soon as one of the intruders pulled out a gun. Acting quickly, he pushed the armed person out the door, at which point the other three thugs left, too.

Finally, beware of these additional tricky situations that appeared an earlier Home Invasion News report.

• You open the door to let out your dog. Okay, you have to — but turn on the exterior light and look through the peep hole before you exit.

• Somebody dressed like a municipal worker asks for entry. Ask for identification.

• Men in uniform knock and demand you open. Don’t panic and do ask for ID.

• Knock-Knock. Your pizza’s here (except you didn’t order pizza). Do panic and don’t open the door.

In the United States, FBI reports do not address “home invasion” crimes. On the other hand, FBI reports do show that the crime rate for robbery, one aspect of home invasion, fell every year from 1991 to 2011, with a slight increase in the first six months of 2012. The “rate of robbery” shown in FBI statistics reflects the number of robberies per 100,000 population. See Home Invasion Statistics and Definitions from the FBI.

In 2011, the last year for which full statistics are available, the robbery rate in the United States was at its lowest level since 1968 (1960 is the first year in which FBI statistics were compiled).

The highest rate of robbery was in 1991. From then, until the first six months of 2012, the robbery rate fell steadily. It rose again slightly in 2001, at which time the annual robbery rate began to fluctuate slightly — some years up a bit, some years down — though the robbery rate since 2001 has remained at about half the rate of the 1991 high.

A sizeable percentages of crimes reported by the media as “home invasions” appear to involve one gang/group of drug dealers forcing entry into the home of another gang/group to retrieve drugs and or cash from the sale of drugs.

Some “home invasion statistics” on the Internet are bogus. Check out Zanran for additional crime statistics.