Burglars

Remove all ads!

Hello, just thought I'd let everyone know I've been burgled for the first time
Some waste of space broke in through my kitchen window while me and Jack were in bed, and stole my DVD player, all my DVDs and for some bizarre reason, all the coats from the coat hooks, then let himself out of the front door taking my key with him! This was between 11pm and 4am on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning and the police were at my house all day yesterday. They later informed me that the guy had stolen a knife from my kitchen drawer so the thought of someone wandering round my house with a ten inch knife is not pleasant, especially since me and Jack (3) were in bed. I'm just thankful I didn't wake up and come downstairs. Anyway they've caught him So I will have to give evidence in court now

 

Yikes, at least when my house was recently burgled I wasn't there, and the thief left empty handed. The cops couldn't be bothered investigating the break in given that nothing was actually stolen.

It is kind of funny, I have never been in the habit of having cash in my house but if I ever do need to hide cash in my house I now know where NOT to put it. Personally, it would never of occured to me to hide anything inside of my combination pin cushion/sewing kit but my burglar seemed to think it was a prime location.

My burglar came in via the kitchen window too, but he/she left the same way he/she came in - not exactly the brightest of individuals considering the window is fairly high off the ground thus requiring the burglar to climb up on top of my A/C unit and stretch sideways to reach it. For the life of me I don't know why the burglar didn't just walk out the back door.

[ November 18, 2004, 17:59: Message edited by: JSBB ]

 

...Because everyone is always watching the doors but NOT the windows -the Big Brother or, more likely, your friendly-but-nosy neighbours.

 

Normally sure, but in my case it is very obvious that no one can see my back door. My house backs out onto a green space so I have no one living behind me and there are large wooden fences around the sides but not the back of my backyard - all of which would have been plainly visible from the side of my house not to mention that the back door is a glass patio style through which anyone in my kitchen has a great view of backyard and the trees beyond it.

If I had to struggle like hell to climb up into a window that starts about 2 metres above the ground I think I would, at the very least, take a quick look to try to find an easier way out.

 

JSBB, I was just testing out my Dex stat; otherwise I WOULD have used the back door.

Oh, and my socks needed darning - imagine my surprise when I found some cash!

 

Fortunately, most criminals seem to have a little something missing. When I was a kid a burgler tried to break in to our house. He went around trying all the doors and windows -- and our 100 pound German Shepherd followed him from place to place inside the house without making a sound, just quivering with anticipation.

 

My parents house got broken into before I was born...and apperently they had a very large, very mean dog back then. The burglar came in through my older brother's room durring the night and when he opened the door to enter the hallway, he stumbled on to the dog. He didn't leave with anything...but recently I found out that he actually tried to sue my parents for getting bitten by the dog several times. What an idiot!

 

We recently got a letter from the local authorities here in my hometown saying there has been a recent spring of burglaries. It's not a letter you wanna get every month I can tell you.

My sword isn't faraway from my bed lately

 

Is it possible for someone to sue you if they get hurt in your house while breaking and entering? Because that would be messed up.

 

In Australia you are allowed to use reasonable force to subdue a burglar. But a guy got convicted of assualt cause he smashed a thief with a baseball bat after he was down.

 

Well, that is quite obvious. If someone is down, don't attack him, haven't we all learned that?

 

In England if a burglar breaks into your house you are allowed to use 'reasonable force' which is most likely politely informing them you would like them to vacate the premises if they wouldn't mind But like the case of Tony Martin people definately don't think enough is done to protect the victims of burglars, and I for one want to see a change in the law. What would the police have done if me or Jack had been stabbed to death? And what would they have done if the burglar had been stabbed to death? Very unfair.

 

A few years ago, a burglar accidently locked himself in the garage of a house that he was robbing while the owners were on vacation. He sued for pain and suffering incurred during the three days that he was in that garage and won.

I've got to admit, with all the crimes in the world today, there's something to be said for keeping guns in the house.

 

In America you're also allowed to use reasonable force -- so long as the reasonable force does not blow him back out the window (the body must land in the house).

The thief can't sue if you kill him, but if you only wound him count on a lawsuit.

 

The miniscule sentences handed out to burglars are a joke. Most burglars are too young to even be prosecuted.

Why can't people sue the caught burglars for the distress they cause and for compensation for the property they steal and destroy?

If you can sue someone for giving you whiplash in a car accident, why can't you sue people for stealing your car? (Especially when the insurance value of a car never covers the cost of replacing the vehicle). I am asking that in all seriousness?

Even if a burglar pleads poverty, they should have the debt of their actions hanging over them until they make reparations to the victims of their crimes, even if that day never comes. They could wear one of those GPS ankle bracelets that put them under curfew until the debt is repaid (did I mention the interest, there would be interest. And debt collectors, the big ones that the major credit card companies send out)

But then the law is an ass.

It is easy for the cops to catch burglars, they catch and release the same people so often that the cops and the thieves are on a first name basis.

Once released the burglar will go out and rob in the same area as before, so if you have been burgled once, there is a very good chance you will be robbed again. (A rented flat familiar to a burglar will get robbed every time the tenant changes).

Locks, lights, alarms, fences, hidden cameras and traps (broken glass, barbed wire) will keep burglars away (or at least send them to your neighbours house).

I fit all of the above for my relatives. Passive Infra-Red (PIR) security lights are the cheapest and most effective measure. Alarms are generally forgotten about by the house owners after a month or so. The new remote controlled house alarms that operate from a key fob like a car alarm are less likely to be abandoned, as are the ones that phone a 24hr monitored call centre.

Vengeance, Vengeance, Vengeance. If you ever hear of how someone would take vengeance into their own hands then they are not qualified to get away with it. No discretion. No secrecy. No concept of the consequences of their actions.

If vengeance is left to the courts, where burglars are seen as a nuisance, not as potential murderers and oppurtunist rapists, then the judge will simply give the same sentence he alway gives to burglars regardless of the distress caused, unless the victim can act sufficiently well to convince him to do otherwise? Sustained low-level sobbing should do the trick.

I still think the debt-slave option is the way forward though.

[ November 20, 2004, 02:47: Message edited by: Black Beard ]

 

I don't think there should be such tough limits on force used on burglars, or armed ones at least. AFAIK if someone breaks into someone else's house it's their life, you know? What are you supposed to do if a burglar is "subdued"? What if they sit down and put their hands up? Turn your back on a still largely uninjured probably violent possibly armed criminal?! Hell no. Knock 'em out.

 

As someone said in a Finnish discussion forum, the ball is in their hands. If they can prove that the burglar did indeed break into your house illegally and uninvited, then it shouldn't make a difference wether you shot them dead or just stunned them with a taser. A home is a home, the most sacred thing there is. Stealing food from the market because you're poor is one thing. But going into someone's house to steal and threaten their life is completely another.

I don't really remember how it went exactly here in Finland anymore. I do remember though that even in your house you're pretty much subjected to the same law of relative use of force as anywhere else (if you see only his hands, you use only hands.. if he picks a knife, you can use something similar, no matter that when he does pick that knife and you see it, it's probably already in your belly). And in case you have invited the person in, you can't use force to get them out of there if they don't pose a physical threat to you. So if someone starts pissing around your house and grabs a pole preventing you from dragging him out, you have to call the police. Anything even close to twisting his arm and guiding him outside is breaking the law.

Of course, laws as stupid as this I ignore completely. Anyone who breaks into my house is within my own territory. That one place in the entire world that belongs to me alone, it's like attacking my own soul. I don't give a damn about any punishments I'd receive, he would have it all coming. Of course I'd try to get him out as peacefully as possible (without letting him escape), but considering every little junkie has at least a little knife or a drugspike with them, this would mean our heirloom of a sword or a baseball bat at the very least. Or do you stand wondering wether it's ok to use your fists or that gun when your family is being slaughtered by a maniac?

Luckily in my old home we had 3 dogs. All of them the big sort very capable of taking down a person. While even there in the forest there were a few sad cases of people being victims of mugging or burglary, nothing ever got even close to our yard.

Now we have no pets or anything, but we live in a secured and monitored area in a floor far above ground level. The most you have here is a junkie trying to get into the cellars to steal bicycles every now and then.

I hate criminals. Each and every one of them. And I firmly believe in my own morals enough to know that I can in fact take justice into my own hands when the law that is bound by society would choose a criminals rights over my life or the lives of my friends and family. They should have no rights at all. Nowadays you can even hit someone in the face knowing nothing will happen to you for that. Whenever it gets beyond risking only small material or financial loss, zero tolerance is my way.

 

Did you know that if a burglar breaks into your home and your dog injures him, he can order the dog to be destroyed in this country?

 

Ozzy has just been burgled. The singer wrestled with the bad guy before the burglar fled with $2 million dollars worth of jewelry. I wonder will the burglar sue Ozzy for emotional distress if he is caught?

It is a pity Ozzy stopped biting the heads off things years ago.