Shotgun-wielding Laketon Township cancer patient, 63, holds off alleged home invaders(MI)

mlive.com ^ | 21 September, 2012 | John S. Hausman

[marktwain]

LAKETON TOWNSHIP, MI – Two young men allegedly picked the wrong Muskegon County home to invade Thursday.

As they climbed the stairs to the second floor of Dixon Smith’s rural home in the 200 block of North Buys Road, they found themselves confronted by the homeowner – a 63-year-old with stage 4 lymphoma, steady nerves and a double-barreled shotgun.

Smith ordered the two to lie down and held them at bay with the loaded gun while he called 911 and waited for police. The incident, called in at 11:54 a.m., ended peacefully with the surrender of the alleged home invaders to police. No one was injured.

[marktwain]

“I really tried to be as forceful as possible,” Smith said. “I didn’t want them to get me into a conversation. You can’t let them get too close to where they can grab the gun.”

Excellent advise.

[cripplecreek]

Hooray for old farts with guns.

[Vigilanteman]

Sort of reminds me of a great line from John Wayne's last movie The Shootist in which he starred knowing he was dying of cancer with some of his great friends in Hollywood, Jimmy Steward, Harry Morgan and Hugh O'Brien among them.

Morgan (sheriff) warns Wayne (J.B.Books) to lie low and stay out of trouble. Books fires back "What's to stop me sheriff? Fear of dying?"

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

As soon as I read she had cancer, the suspicion they were after drugs popped into mind. This is a major hazard, as there are an estimated 2.5m+ pain drug addicts in the US.

This is why it is a very good idea to limit what other people know about your illnesses and prescriptions. It is not unreasonable to destroy non-critical pharmacy info that they give out with their drugs, as well as removing labels from pill bottles before disposal.

Oxycodone has been reformulated to make it harder to abuse, but this shifted the addicts to Oxymorphone (common name brand Opana (rhymes with Obama)). And if they can’t get their prescription drugs, the cheaper alternative is heroin, a single dose of which is $5-10.

[Doug in CA]

Strange, the article mentioned Obama in the yard, and then no further mention. An Eastwood moment.

[exnavy]

I have a nice short 12 gauge double for home defense, those twin tubes look like a pair of howitzers from the business end.

[cripplecreek]

Personally I don’t understand the prohibition of sawed off shotguns in the first place.

[exnavy]

I don’t get that one either.