When seconds count, it’s been proven time and again that you can only count on yourself. In true emergencies, family, friends or the police will likely be too far away to help.
Shannon Gaasch found that out firsthand when she heard glass shatter in the middle of the night. Someone had thrown a brick through her friend’s door in Baltimore. Trapped on the second floor with nowhere to go, Gaasch, along with the homeowner and her 2-year-old son, ran to the rooftop where Gaasch called 911.
Many frantic minutes later, Gaasch breathed a sigh of relief when she finally heard sirens, only to be told the police were responding to another call. As minute after terrifying minute ticked away, Gaasch feared for their lives. “They’re still in the house, they’re still in the house,” she pleaded to the Baltimore dispatch. “Where are the cops?”
It would be 14 long, agonizing minutes before police arrived at the scene of the home invasion. Fortunately, the two young women and young boy were safe and unharmed. But this incident could have had a very different ending. And it serves as good reminder of why putting our safety in the hands of others could be a fatal mistake.
