Lessons learned the hard way: Only you can protect you

Lesson learned in Akron: The need for self-defense can come when you least expect it:

Abduction suspect, truck described
A 21-year-old woman told police the man tried to abduct her when he stopped his vehicle, described as a black, late-model Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck, as she walked on West Bergey Street shortly after 8 p.m. Monday. The man forced the woman into the vehicle and was driving north on Main Street when she struggled with him, according to police. She was able to jump from the vehicle as it moved slowly down the road, she told police.

Lesson learned in Dayton: The need for self-defense doesn’t stop at the thresh-hold of a state-mandated victim zone:

Dayton man suspect in Middletown rape
Police are seeking a Dayton man they believe raped, robbed and tied up a woman last month in the storeroom of a city bar. Antwan Hall, 24, of an unknown address, is wanted for aggravated robbery, kidnapping and two counts of rape in the Jan. 24 assault. The victim was found the next morning by two Aramark employees making a delivery to Tina's Bar and Bistro, 400 Clark St. They found her bound with electrical cords and covered with a comforter. Her boyfriend, who asked not to be identified, said she suffered a broken nose and other facial injuries.

Lesson learned in Columbus: Sometimes you don’t have to be at work to need to defend against a criminal who wants to rob your employer

Robbers’ hostage forced to help them
She never heard the crowbar against the locked back door, prying it loose.
It wasn’t until the two armed, masked men were standing in her bedroom that the woman woke up. It was 3:30 a.m. She had thought she was alone in the house. The two men handcuffed her and bound her as they waited for her husband to arrive home from his night job. About four hours later, when he walked into their S. High Street home, he found his wife tied to a chair and two men with handguns standing by her. He, too, was handcuffed and bound, Columbus police said. One of the bandits forced the woman to drive from her home to a KeyBank office on the Northwest Side, where she works as a teller. The other robber stayed with her husband. The woman had a key to the bank at 5775 Frantz Rd., but not for the vault. So they waited until a manager arrived with that key. The armed man left the bank with about $200,000 in a car driven by his partner, said the teller’s mother-inlaw, who spoke to The Dispatch on the condition of anonymity. What happened yesterday is hauntingly similar to a string of robberies of banks and check-cashing businesses in Columbus in the past two years.

Lesson EXERCISED in Seneca County: Prepare for the worst, because not all criminals who enter your house at 2:30 a.m. will be this stupid.

Burglar offers arresting performance on chief's piano
Seneca County sheriff's deputies said New Riegel's police chief Steve Swartzmiller was awakened shortly after 2:30 a.m. by the sound of someone breaking through the front door of his house on Township Road 22. Cindy Feasel, a dispatcher for the department, said Chief Swartzmiller grabbed his service firearm and headed for the living room, where he found Mr. Chadwell sitting at the piano. "He got up, and the chief told him to sit back down, and then he started playing," Ms. Feasel said, reading from an incident report. "He played beautifully, even as intoxicated as he was."