When a home intruder didn’t heed a New Mexico grandmother’s warnings, she was forced to take matters into her own hands to protect her grandchild. The harrowing 911 call from that terrifying night has since been released, and it will send chills down your spine.
Anissa Tinnin, a grandmother in New Mexico, was happily dancing in her living room to the Taylor Swift movie with her 4-year-old granddaughter on a Thursday night when their joyful evening took a terrifying turn. Suddenly, Anissa was faced with an uninvited guest who had burst into her home, leaving her desperate to protect her granddaughter from the strange man who had just intruded into her house.
“I jumped over this couch, and we met there by the front door,” the grandmom told KRQE, recalling the terror that unfolded that fateful March night when her serene evening with her granddaughter was obliterated by an uninvited criminal invading her Albuquerque home. “That’s when he grabbed me and was upset and said to give him my keys. He said he didn’t want to go to jail. He did threaten to hurt my granddaughter and me.”
Although Anissa didn’t yet know it, her uninvited guest was a 32-year-old criminal named Joseph Rivera, who had reportedly just crashed a stolen vehicle down the street after the Albuquerque Police Department had flattened its tires with spike strips. Rivera continued to drive on the rims before fleeing on foot. He then hopped a fence into Anissa’s yard and eventually entered her house.
Not wanting to go to jail, Rivera was desperate to get away from the police and began demanding the keys to Anissa’s car. The fast-thinking grandmother quickly hatched a plan to hopefully get the help she needed to keep her and her granddaughter safe, calling 911 and leaving the line open as she searched for her keys while trying to calm Rivera down. “As we were walking…I put my hands on him… to try to be calming… ‘Tell me what your name is’…’Tell me where you are from,'” she recalled.
With her phone connected to 911, the call captured Anissa in the background, trying everything to get Rivera to leave. “I told him to not hurt us, that I would do whatever he wanted. I would give him keys, money, whatever it took,” she said, and it worked. Rivera grabbed a key fob and headed towards Anissa’s car, at which point she began crying into the phone, telling 911, “This guy came into my house and tried to take my car. Please help me.”
Concerned the intruder could return, Anissa took her granddaughter to a bedroom and told her to stay there. “I need you to be really brave right now. I got to go. Stay right here in the bedroom,” the New Mexico grandma told her granddaughter, who could be heard crying in the background. “It’s okay baby,” Anissa reassured the little girl.
Although Anissa’s fast thinking got Rivera out of her home, he’d break in a second time, but this time, she was ready. Concerned that the home intruder could return, the grandmother had grabbed her gun, according to The Blaze. With sirens indicating that police were closing in on him, Rivera began banging on the door before eventually kicking it in. That’s when the grandmother issued a warning that Rivera should have heeded.
“Get back. Get back. I have a gun. Get back. Get back. I will f******* shoot you,” Anissa warned Rivera as he reportedly began walking swiftly towards her down the hallway, forcing the grandmother to make good on her promise and fire her gun. With 911 dispatch asking what she did and the suspect asking, “Why did you shoot me?” the grandmother responded, “Because you’re in my f****** house!” Rather than leaving the intruder to suffer the consequences of his actions, Anissa rendered aid, applying pressure to his gunshot wound.
Shockingly, Anissa even offered to get him a drink, but not before issuing another stern warning. “I will give you water but if you f****** hurt me, I’m going to shoot you again,” she told him. Although Anissa had effectively neutralized a threat and protected her granddaughter, she felt no joy in what she had been forced to do. Instead, you can hear the agony in her voice in the 911 recording as she begs the dispatcher for help. “This is not happening… where are the police?” a crying Anissa asked.
Thankfully, officers moved in minutes later, dragging Rivera out of the house. “I do believe we had a guardian angel here with us, and I do firmly believe that God was watching over us,” Anissa declared, following the harrowing ordeal. Sadly, although she was physically unscathed, the traumatic event left its mark on Anissa’s granddaughter, who subsequently developed a fear of the dark and an abundance of concern over whether or not the doors were locked and the alarm was set at night.
Obviously, it could have been worse had the grandmother not been armed and prepared to defend her home, and for that reason, it would seem Anissa Tinnin has no regrets now. “I think that when you’re faced with a decision of protecting your family, you do what you have to do,” she said, and thanks to the Second Amendment, she could do what she had to do rather than being at the mercy of a desperate criminal. As for Joseph Rivera, who has a lengthy rap sheet, he was finally where he belongs, and that’s behind bars.
As it turns out, Rivera had a warrant out for his arrest after he was found passed out in a stolen car roughly 8 months prior. Even with five previous felony convictions, he was released and then failed to appear in court. Two months later, he was arrested and released again. Another month later, after again failing to appear in court, he was arrested and released again. While on the run, he added more burglary and car theft charges to his criminal resume until he faced off with a grandma who wasn’t about to be as lenient as the judges he had faced.
