Did you know that asset management helps to fight crime and protect families? Let me explain. By day I am a portfolio manager at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management (“OSAM”). Our largest and (one of our) longest standing client is firm with whom we have been partnered since 1997. It has been a remarkable partnership, but last night the relationship indirectly contributed to the protection and safety of my brother-in-law and his family.
Back in 2007, members of our team at OSAM and at our client’s firm got Louisville Slugger bats to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of our partnership, inscribed with our names and a nice message. A few years later, when visiting the client, a good friend at the client’s firm (who had received a commemorative bat) told me that he kept his bat by his bedside for peace of mind and protection.
When I moved to the suburbs about 3 months ago, I remembered his story and bought a bat for myself to keep by MY bedside (but forgot the origin story of the bat itself). I thought it was a great idea, so I suggested that a number of other friends and family also buy bats. My logic was that if you swing a Louisville Slugger as hard as you can and connect with any part of an intruder’s body, they are toast for at least a little while. This seemed to me a compelling option for self-defense.
Well, my brother-in-law agreed and bought a bat, and last night at 2am used that bat as he screamed and chased two burglars out of his house!
A homeowner with only a bat in his hand to protect his young child and wife sleeping in their North Stamford home was able to scare off two early morning intruders Wednesday, police said… a 34-year-old homeowner sleeping in bed with his wife heard someone break the window of his back door just before 2 a.m. After hearing the glass shatter and someone opening up the rear door and entering the home, the man was able to grab a baseball bat and run out the bedroom door to defend his 10-month-old child and wife… After yelling at them and threatening to beat them with the bat, the two turned tail and ran back down the stairs and through the door they had moments earlier broken through.
Everyone involved is doing well. Only after telling my friend this story did he remind me that the bat which inspired the idea in the first place was in fact the bat we had given him 8 years ago! Asset management: fighting crime, saving lives (indirectly…sorta…well not really, it was all my brother-in-law and his wife’s smart reactions. But I still think it’s a great story!)