in the aftermath of a crime

For those who do not know me, my name is Elena "Lucky" Doguet. I was a victim of the felony crime of Burglary of a Habitation and an included assault committed in South Austin this week.

I will give a brief recollection, in some detail, here of the events that took place on Thursday, March 7 as this will be the platform where I can share my story. If you have experienced any form of theft or violent crime, this is a trigger warning for the following story.

I had just returned home from running errands and visiting my partner at work. I heard my dogs barking excessively. It was abnormal, but I did not think much of it. I walked through my house to the back door to let my property guardian dog inside, not quite processing the disarray of my home as I walked through. He disobeyed me as I asked him to go into his crate and ran through my house barking. Not realizing the gravity of this behavior, I recalled him to me and, upon locking him into his crate, turned around. I was stunned to see before me a completely nude man holding a drug pipe and torch lighter. He began to smoke as he advanced toward me. I spoke calmly to him as I slowly retrieved my phone from the table next to me and dialed 911. I spoke to the dispatcher for a few moments before, to my horror, realizing that the line had disconnected. I moved carefully toward a window in my living room that I always left unlocked in case of an event like this. As he realized this, he grabbed hold of an empty dog crate in between us and thrust it toward me, throwing me into the wall behind me and cutting my leg. I froze in shock for just a moment, then turned and released my dog from his crate. The man did not react in any way for a moment, even as my dog barked at him, but eventually turned to walk away. I quickly put my dog back into the crate again, fearing that he may be hurt if left alone with the man, and rushed to the window. I could not get enough leverage to open it, as in the time he spent inside my house he had moved shelves and toppled many pieces of stereo equipment in front of it. I realized that it may be stuck and dialed 911 for a second time as he walked through my kitchen toward my bedroom. I spoke to the dispatcher as I heard him kick another of my dogs who was loose in the house and struggled with the window. I heard him open my bedroom door, where he came face to face with my personal protection dog. He screamed and I heard objects crashing as she attempted to bite him. A few moments later I heard the door slam and he returned to the living room, smoking a second time. As he walked toward me again, a second wave of adrenaline fueled me to wrench the window open. I turned to face him and rolled out of the window backward, catching and severely bruising the backs of my knees on the window frame. I landed on my back, looking up at the man in the window as he looked down at me. I scrambled backward, willed my legs under me again, and ran to the lowest part of my fence. I hurled myself over, pulling a muscle in my neck. I made my way to the front yard where I stood alone and in shock as I waited for the police to arrive.

A hundred units must have arrived within half an hour. APD, SWAT and their BearCats and snipers and robots, bomb quad, hostage negotiators, AISD, Fire, EMS, drone operators, K9 officers, and many more units filled the streets surrounding my home. The SWAT robot, drones, and 2 flashbangs were deployed. Snipers took positions on my neighbors' roofs. An hours-long siege of the house ended with the man exiting peacefully, but this experience is still far from over for us.

I sat alone with my partner with no real updates or comfort from officers for hours, drawing layouts of my home, identifying the locations and types of weapons in the house, and worrying like hell about the dogs inside. I was not allowed to enter the house until the crime scene units arrived to document the scene. The shock and pain of walking through the apparent warzone that my home had become was unbelievable. The floors in every room were covered with my broken and filthy belongings. There was urine in my front hallway and soaking a blanket that had been dragged into a bathroom. Feces in the bathtub. There are holes in the walls. Empty and bare cabinets and shelves, but crowded floors in every room. There was no pattern. Everything. From my neatly folded fabrics to our empty dog crates. Our "good cups", a collection of old Muzzleloader magazines, and handwritten cards thanking me for my volunteer work. A cello, a chair, boxes of dried potatoes, our literal garbage. A pair of hiking boots that were a gift from my father and a fur coat that was a gift from a dearly departed friend were shredded by the tracks of the SWAT robot. Those and many more items had been dragged out of the house and were simply left on our front lawn. Then there were the items that he left behind. Shoes in the yard, a hat, a card with his name and photo, crumpled bills, and the lighter that he had in his hand during the assault. The police did not need or want his items.

We had a box of Narcan in the front hallway that he ripped apart and the packets from inside had bite marks on them where he attempted to open them. Many scenes from the house painted a confusing and heartbreaking picture as we took stock of the now unrecognizable place where we have lived for years. I was left standing on my front porch, beginning the process of mourning my belongings and sense of security. Inside the house, the smells from the events that took place are inescapable.

The damage repair and cleanup will be extensive. We will have to rent a dumpster and clean the house ourselves, cataloging our discarded items and their monetary values as we go. We need new dog crates, as many of ours are broken now. We need cleaning supplies. And, most importantly, I will need time off of work to recover from this experience. Hopefully, my partner will be able to receive the same.

If you are in the right place financially to donate to this fund and find it in your heart to do so, it would mean more than I can explain here to my partner and me as we work through this harrowing process and try to regain our peace.

I would like to end this entreaty for aid by leaving you all with an excerpt from the Austin American Statesman article written about the event, which can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/burglary-and-assault

[Doguet said it's likely the man was experiencing homelessness. But, echoing what her neighbor has seen, Doguet believes the homeless issue in her neighborhood became worse after Austin's camping ban was reinstated in 2021.

She said she opposed the ban during that election cycle, adding that she knew all of the homeless people in her area then and would offer them food or even a shower at times.

She said it's time for city leaders to come up with a "long-term solution. (And) criminalizing homelessness ... isn't a solution."

Doguet said she's not against arresting people who commit a crime, but she doesn't believe city leaders are focusing on the right ways to tackle the issues.

Despite her experiences, Doguet said her beliefs toward homelessness haven't changed.

"If I can go through something like this and not lose my compassion for other human beings, then the average person has no excuse," she said.]