Jesse Livingston's novelty sword worked well enough when it counted.
The 17-year-old knocked an intruder over the head with a blade built more for looks than for duels and chased the man out of his west Tulsa home.
"Apparently the guy looked pretty scared," said Leslie Livingston, the teenager's mother. "He kind of jumped out and surprised him."
Jesse Livingston was hiding with the sword in his bedroom when the man kicked in the front door about 10:30 p.m. on Jan 27 and went straight for the only light in the house.
Livingston tried to stab him at first.
The sword -- real metal, but purchased as a decoration at the Tulsa State Fair -- didn't break the intruder's clothing.
Instead, it left a gash on the man's head as Livingston flapped it around. The man stumbled out the front door and ran down the street.
"Jesse did tell me afterwards, 'I told you I might need that sword,' " Leslie Livingston said.
In the wake of home invasions such as the Jan. 16 shooting death of 66-year-old Tulsan William Zachary, Leslie Livingston was shaken up by the ordeal but glad her son protected himself.
"I'm probably worse off than him," she said. "All you hear about on the news is bad stuff, and you try to convince him that not everybody is bad, and then this happens."
She added, "I just hope this makes people realize that you can stick up for yourself."
Jesse Livingston, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was home alone when the man began walking between the front and back doors and knocking repeatedly on both.
Jesse took the sword from its display stand and hid.
If that happens again, his mother would like him to make it clear that someone is home -- perhaps by asking who it is or threatening to call the police.
Police say burglars don't want to be seen, so they typically don't target occupied houses.
Leslie Livingston thinks her house was targeted because the porch lights were broken and most of the inside lights were off.
"I cannot say enough about lights," Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham said. "From street lights to porch lights, those are important things that are going to make a would-be burglar or robber pass you up."
Locking deadbolts and removing shrubs from in front of windows can also keep houses from becoming targets, he said.
"You don't want to have shrubs up around your house that can hide and conceal somebody as they are peeking into windows," he said.
"Every step you take in trying to protect yourself, your home and your valuables is just going to make it that much harder for somebody."
City on edge
While home invasions are rare, recent incidents have some Tulsa residents on edge, police said.
William Zachary was shot in a particularly brutal incident where a group of strangers kicked in his door in the 13300 block of East 36th Street about 8:15 p.m. and demanded money.
In an unrelated home invasion Wednesday, two gunmen took electronics from a woman who answered her door in the 500 block of East Ute Street.
But most home invasions aren't so random, police said.
Two people who were injured in a shooting at their home Thursday are alleged to have had a stockpile of marijuana.
That means the shootings might have been drug-related, police said.
"Home invasions are extremely rare in the city of Tulsa," Willingham said. "They do occur, as we've seen, but they just don't happen all that often."
In most cases, the victims are involved in some kind of illegal activity or know the assailants, he said.
That isn't necessarily the case with burglaries, which are defined as entering a building or vehicle with intent to commit a nonviolent crime such as theft.
But burglaries can quickly become home invasions -- differentiated by their violent nature -- if handled poorly, police said.
"You've got to understand the mindset of somebody who's going to commit this crime," Willingham said. "They're amped up, maybe hyped up on something, nervous, scared."
Police urge residents to stay calm during burglaries and home invasions and comply with the assailants' demands.
Residents who startle intruders are often hurt or killed, Willingham said.
"Don't scream or get afraid and don't overreact," he said. "You can't ever predict what these guys are going to do.
"You don't want to increase the nervousness, the anxiety that this bad guy has."
When a witness spots someone suspicious alone in a house, it's important to avoid a confrontation, police say.
A witness should call the police and write detailed descriptions of any suspicious people and vehicles, including the tag numbers, Willingham said.
Fighting back
Jesse Livingston's sword did enough that the burglar had to call for medical help, claiming that he had been shot.
After the incident, Jesse Livingston called his mother and older brother, who rushed home and noticed an ambulance traveling away from the house.
His brother followed the ambulance, asked the medics about the injured man and told them it might be the burglar.
The medics called the police, and Jeremy Wayne Olson, 18, was arrested on a burglary complaint.
Tulsa police don't discourage residents from using force during burglaries and home invasions.
The use of force in such situations is legal under Oklahoma law.
But they do caution residents.
Jesse Livingston's actions worked because he was willing to use his weapon and knew how, police said.
"You don't want to introduce any weapon, whether it be a gun or a knife or a Samurai sword, unless you're willing to use it," Willingham said.
It's easy for a home invader to take a gun from a resident who hesitates to shoot, he said.
"If you're in a home and you pull a gun, you have to be of the mindset that you can use that gun," he said.
Leslie Livingston now knows her son can use a weapon.
She bought him a real sword after the incident.
"He's very proud of himself that he took care of himself," she said.
The lesson, she said, is that "if you're prepared and you think it through, you can defend yourself.
"You can make sure that somebody doesn't get away with your stuff."
Copyright 2012 - Tulsa World, Okla.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
