Credibility.

After a June 11 altercation in a Youngstown, Ohio, home left the homeowner with stab wounds and an alleged intruder with a gunshot wound, police indicated that the homeowner and the alleged intruder gave very different accounts of the events. The homeowner claimed that an armed stranger marched him and his 13-yearold son at gunpoint into the house, where the homeowner subsequently fought with the intruder. The alleged intruder, on the other hand, said that he was an acquaintance of the homeowner and that he went to the house unarmed. In the immediate aftermath of the altercation, the chief of detectives for Youngstown stated to the press: "The truth is probably somewhere in the middle."

It turns out that the truth was not "somewhere in the middle." The homeowner, Forrest Adams, was telling the complete truth all along. Almost nothing in the intruder's version of events turned out to be true--not even his name. When first questioned by police as he lay in bed at a hospital, the intruder gave his name as Dennis Pixley, an 18-year-old, but police learned through the man's girlfriend that his name was Derrick Harman, a 28-yearold violent felon who'd just been paroled from prison seven months previously after being incarcerated since 1998 for assault and aggravated robbery. There is a real Dennis Pixley, but his ID had been stolen several months earlier and Harman had appropriated his identity.

As detectives sorted through the stories and the evidence, the truth came out and the night's chain of events became clear. Adams and his son Galen Hobdy arrived home at about 11:00 p.m., and a man wearing a bandanna and a bulletproof vest approached them on their porch and "screamed that he wanted all their money and threatened them with the gun," reported the Vindicator. Adams and his son were forced to strip to their underwear, and Hatman threatened to kill the boy if he didn't get money, yelling, "Don't [expletive] with me--I will shoot your kid!"

Later, when Harman lowered his gun while searching a room upstairs, Adams charged him and grabbed his gun. While the men struggled for the gun, Harman fell down the stairs, dropping his gun along the way. Adams pursued him, but Harman grabbed a kitchen knife. To counter the knife, Adams grabbed a ceremonial axe off a wall and managed to strike Harman, even as Harman stabbed him.

Meanwhile, Galen had retrieved Harman's gun. As the two adults fought, Adams maneuvered Harman around until Galen could get a clear shot. When Galen got his opportunity, he took a shot and hit Harman. Harman then fled the house.

Adams had knife wounds in his left hand and upper arm, requiring 32 stitches to close and future surgery to fix. Harman was in critical condition in a hospital.