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Well, it appears that the guy was actually stealing valuable stuff from his property, hence the 1st degree burglary charge.
The other point that I should bring up is that Vida is a tiny unincorporated town, with only a little over 1,000 people living in the entire zip code, and no police department. Since the Lane County Sheriff had to cut back on its rural patrols, it can now take 30 minutes or more for law enforcement to be able to respond to a 911 call from Vida.
People living in such small rural communities face a different problem when it comes to defending their homes, compared to those of us that live inside a substantial city. The only government building in Vida is their post office.
Here is a photo from Google Maps, showing the view that you see when you enter Vida from the west. You will see the tiny Post Office on the immediate right with its American flag, with the town's only market right next to it. A bit further to the right down the road, you will see the town's only gas station.
And a little further yet down the road on the left, you see a few parked cars. They are parked at the only place in town to eat: The Vida Cafe.
That is it. This is the entire town of Vida.
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Not long ago, the sheriff here in Polk County was pushing for more funds to hire more deputies. I occasionally got email from the sheriffs office that would say "Due to budget cuts, there will be no patrols in your area between the hours of"...
And that's when I got serious about being able to protect wife and homestead. Before that, I really never gave it much thought.
Since then, I've learned quite a bit - including the well known nugget "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."
They've since been able to hire more deputies. But living "out in the boonies" definitely gives us a different mindset than folks who live in town.