A Tiny Home for TiLT
Tax deductible
In early October, all of us at the TiLT house experienced a shocking trauma: first, a violent, psychotic stalker shattered our window with a bullet blast, and then—later that same night as we we gave statements at the local PD— he shattered our well-being with a raging arson blaze that burned a fifth of our house to a blackened nightmare. Soot is everywhere. The entire TiLT House is uninhabitable for at least six months due to the extensive fire and smoke damage. It will take a long time to rebuild, but rebuild we will.
In the meantime, TiLT could use a tiny home. Can you help? Your contribution helps friends of TiLT construct a tiny home for TiLT residents, giving them a safe and mobile place from which to continue serving our community for years to come.
We want to raise $25,000 in 25 days, so carpenters can start building a tiny home for TiLT by mid-November. If you have other ways you want to help TiLT in our time of need, please contact Todd Wynward at [email redacted]. To see who we are and what we do, check out taostilt.org.
- - -
If you want to know the whole background, here's a post I shared with friends when it happened:
Some seriously crazy and scary and damaging events went down at our home late last night in downtown Taos. So far, it’s felt like a bad parody of some nightmare CSI show.
Holly, a young woman who is like a daughter to us, has lived with us for more than a year. A psycho ex-boyfriend from out of town has been stalking her, and late last night he was skulking around our yard, and then shot a bullet in her window. Holly screamed and called 911. I confronted the stalker in a relational way outside, and told him to leave the property and not go down this path. I asked him what he was really wanting, and tried to make him realize that he was not going to reboot a good relationship this way.
As the sirens approached, he put a hand on my shoulder, said, “Thanks for taking care of her,” and dropped an engagement ring into my hand. At that moment, three members of the Taos Police, who had been notified of an armed and dangerous intruder, moved into and through the house like a SWAT team wearing kevlar vests and sweeping room to room, flashlights mounted on AR-15s.
Meanwhile, the psycho ex-boyfriend fled into the darkness of our huge backyard. A few more officers arrived, and they combed the premises and all the nooks and crannies of our house and yard, but the assailant was gone. He was somewhere on the loose, in the night.
Jangled and scared, we were eventually directed to the Taos Police Station, to wait a long time and make statements. Close to midnight, I was in the middle of talking to an officer when he suddenly heard something on his radio. He confirmed, and then looked at me and abruptly got up. “Our interview is over,” he said. “Your house is on fire.”
Whaaaat?
Jumping back in the car, Peg and I followed several fire engines and a few police units the mile back to our house, but middle-of-night police roadblocks with whirling sirens and lights prevented us from getting anywhere near our own home. A Taos police officer dressed in SWAT gear counseled us with some cold facts: “there is a live fire at your home and a dangerous armed suspect is on the loose. You don’t need to be here.” He described our house as “engulfed” at one point, though we could see nothing of the sort from a distance.
We returned yet again to the police station. Soon, a few key officers gathered, and let us know assets from across the state were being assigned to cooperate in a huge manhunt that would begin at 1:30am. They were trying to get a helicopter as well to assist in the manhunt. The fire at our house had been put out, and a state Fire Marshall was driving three hours to inspect the scene. Bleary eyed, shaken, nothing practical left to do, no possibility of returning to our house that night, we left Taos about 2am to seek refuge at a condo for the night.
So that’s where we are now. We are safe, we have our laptops and phones and dogs and a change of clothes. Our housemates are all safe. I have registered an insurance claim, spoken to Fire Marshals and police officers. The Fire Marshall spent hours there in the early morning, confirming arson and point of fire origin. The Fire Marshall stated one of our cats died in the fire but that one was alive. The two dogs are with us. Caution tape rings our property, and fire trucks and police cars were still there at 8am, I am told.
Peg and I will be returning to the scene of the crime and the place of the trauma—meaning our home—early this afternoon to survey the damage and decide next steps. Electricity and gas have been shut off, and I am not clear when they will resume. Documenting and clean up and insurance haggling and repair-making will most likely fill our next few days. The one piece of good news this morning is that the suspect was apprehended and arrested before 5am this morning.
So: we ask for your forgiveness and grace and prayers and patience as we try to cobble our lives back together. Incredible gratitude all the law enforcement officers involved. They were incredibly compassionate, respectful, professional, devoted, and determined. I am crying tears of joy and relief right now for their endless competent care and courage all through a very dark and scary night.
Love from all of us,
Peg and Todd and the TiLT Team
In the meantime, TiLT could use a tiny home. Can you help? Your contribution helps friends of TiLT construct a tiny home for TiLT residents, giving them a safe and mobile place from which to continue serving our community for years to come.
We want to raise $25,000 in 25 days, so carpenters can start building a tiny home for TiLT by mid-November. If you have other ways you want to help TiLT in our time of need, please contact Todd Wynward at [email redacted]. To see who we are and what we do, check out taostilt.org.
- - -
If you want to know the whole background, here's a post I shared with friends when it happened:
Some seriously crazy and scary and damaging events went down at our home late last night in downtown Taos. So far, it’s felt like a bad parody of some nightmare CSI show.
Holly, a young woman who is like a daughter to us, has lived with us for more than a year. A psycho ex-boyfriend from out of town has been stalking her, and late last night he was skulking around our yard, and then shot a bullet in her window. Holly screamed and called 911. I confronted the stalker in a relational way outside, and told him to leave the property and not go down this path. I asked him what he was really wanting, and tried to make him realize that he was not going to reboot a good relationship this way.
As the sirens approached, he put a hand on my shoulder, said, “Thanks for taking care of her,” and dropped an engagement ring into my hand. At that moment, three members of the Taos Police, who had been notified of an armed and dangerous intruder, moved into and through the house like a SWAT team wearing kevlar vests and sweeping room to room, flashlights mounted on AR-15s.
Meanwhile, the psycho ex-boyfriend fled into the darkness of our huge backyard. A few more officers arrived, and they combed the premises and all the nooks and crannies of our house and yard, but the assailant was gone. He was somewhere on the loose, in the night.
Jangled and scared, we were eventually directed to the Taos Police Station, to wait a long time and make statements. Close to midnight, I was in the middle of talking to an officer when he suddenly heard something on his radio. He confirmed, and then looked at me and abruptly got up. “Our interview is over,” he said. “Your house is on fire.”
Whaaaat?
Jumping back in the car, Peg and I followed several fire engines and a few police units the mile back to our house, but middle-of-night police roadblocks with whirling sirens and lights prevented us from getting anywhere near our own home. A Taos police officer dressed in SWAT gear counseled us with some cold facts: “there is a live fire at your home and a dangerous armed suspect is on the loose. You don’t need to be here.” He described our house as “engulfed” at one point, though we could see nothing of the sort from a distance.
We returned yet again to the police station. Soon, a few key officers gathered, and let us know assets from across the state were being assigned to cooperate in a huge manhunt that would begin at 1:30am. They were trying to get a helicopter as well to assist in the manhunt. The fire at our house had been put out, and a state Fire Marshall was driving three hours to inspect the scene. Bleary eyed, shaken, nothing practical left to do, no possibility of returning to our house that night, we left Taos about 2am to seek refuge at a condo for the night.
So that’s where we are now. We are safe, we have our laptops and phones and dogs and a change of clothes. Our housemates are all safe. I have registered an insurance claim, spoken to Fire Marshals and police officers. The Fire Marshall spent hours there in the early morning, confirming arson and point of fire origin. The Fire Marshall stated one of our cats died in the fire but that one was alive. The two dogs are with us. Caution tape rings our property, and fire trucks and police cars were still there at 8am, I am told.
Peg and I will be returning to the scene of the crime and the place of the trauma—meaning our home—early this afternoon to survey the damage and decide next steps. Electricity and gas have been shut off, and I am not clear when they will resume. Documenting and clean up and insurance haggling and repair-making will most likely fill our next few days. The one piece of good news this morning is that the suspect was apprehended and arrested before 5am this morning.
So: we ask for your forgiveness and grace and prayers and patience as we try to cobble our lives back together. Incredible gratitude all the law enforcement officers involved. They were incredibly compassionate, respectful, professional, devoted, and determined. I am crying tears of joy and relief right now for their endless competent care and courage all through a very dark and scary night.
Love from all of us,
Peg and Todd and the TiLT Team
Organizer
Todd Battenfield Wynward
Organizer
Taos, NM
Taos Initiative for Life Together
Beneficiary