Anytime, and thanks I will need it. :-)

Glad your back on track.

Good luck,
jrw159

That, my friend, was a beautiful story. JUSTICE SERVED!

You got lucky on that one. :-)  Texas is a little different than here. I don't know if I could have touched him for simple theft, here in Michigan. Especially if he were to have dropped the property & fled. Not unless he actually posed a real serious threat. That's just ME though. I applaud & respect you for doing what you did. A lot of people wouldn't have. When I first got my CCW in Nevada, the instructor (veteran NY cop) went on & on about how easy it was to get sued, even if you were totally in the right. (he had been sued 5 times) Not to mention prosecuted. Nevada law requires an absolute extreme circumstance before serious physical or deadly force will be justified in a self defense case. Michigan's even worse. most Liberal states are. (No offense to any Liberals out there! :-))My Martial Arts instructor always said pretty much the same. You better be really sure before you cut someone or seriously injure them. Even if you're absolutely in the right, you will, most likely, be sued by surviving relatives, or the "victim" himself if left alive.

I have been in a couple situations where I came really close, actually had my hand on my gun. I knew if I pulled it, I would have used it. Without doubt. I used to always carry a knife, but same deal there. I knew if an assailant out sized me, I was going to cut him, rather than wait to see if I could stop him "fair" first. It's a very fine line to walk when defending yourself, or even protecting your property. The law will actually penalize you for knowing a Martial Art & hurting some one with it. True fact. My instructor trained law enforcement officers for defense against edged weapons in several states for over a decade & spoke from a great deal of experience with cops when he told me this. The law will expect you to "control & defuse" the situation WITHOUT excessive force...BECAUSE YOU ARE TRAINED TO DEFEND YOURSELF!!!! They expect you to respond to a level three threat with level one or two restraint, or physical immobilization. The hell with that!! I'm not going to wait for it to go that far if I truly feel threatened. Bruce Lee said the way of the intercepting fist (Jeet Kune Do) is literally to stop the attack with an attack of your own, before the assailant can effectively complete their attack. That essentially means, you may actually be the one "throwing the first punch". It's sobering to think about how quickly your life can change over a small incident escalating to use of force to protect yourself, or your property.

Of course, this situation you faced, is much less extreme (in the case of he didn't come at you with a weapon like a gun, etc.) and a little different, but I don't trust law enforcement, or the "justice" system. Read too many real life cases of burglars & armed robbers successfully suing in a civil trial for damages related to their victim defending themselves. It's a total crock, but that's the system we have. Far more likely to protect the perpetrator than the victim. We have the Mickey Shermans & Robert Schapiro's to thank, in part for that. Here I go on another rant. Just hate to see the system persecute the individuals it was supposed to be designed to protect! I'm always one to look at it from the worst case scenario & fear the worst for myself, because of technicality or outright ignorance.

I respect you for what you did, John. I'm glad you got in your licks & didn't get sweat by the pigs for it! Really. :-) S.W.