How to deal with burglars?

[Sharop]

What do you all think is the appropriate way to deal with burglars?

If you come across them in your house, I personally don't see anything wrong with trying to defend your property, although if they're not armed, I think it would be best not to be too vicious with them.

However, I've always thought the best way to deal with burglars is the Home Alone way. I mean - wouldn't everyone here just LOVE to do that kind of stuff to burglars? It's so funny! Have blowtorches burn their heads, have them place their hands on red-hot doorknobs, have them slip on the stairs, have them step on nails, swing paint cans down the stairs to smash into their faces, swing a heavy iron bar down the stairs to smash into their faces...wonderful! I can just see it all happening now, with Joe Pesci snarling and Daniel Stern whimpering.

[Fleet]

The best way is to make sure your house is secure... minimum 1" deadbolts on exterior doors, some kind of window locks, etc.

[Janice]

Alarm systems are a good idea too.

[Sharop]

Someone on a message board once said that they dug some kind of pit in their garden, and a burglar fell in and broke his leg! They said he tried to sue, but that he was laughed out of court.

Well - I do think he deserved it.

[Number 9 Dream]

:lol: That's pretty funny.

Someone on a message board once said that they dug some kind of pit in their garden, and a burglar fell in and broke his leg! They said he tried to sue, but that he was laughed out of court.

Well - I do think he deserved it.

[Ireneparalegal]

with a gun...

[Sharop]

:lol: That's pretty funny.

Yeah - at first I felt a bit guilty for being amused, but then I thought, "Well, he was going to burgle the house..."

What I think is unfair, though, is if someone is attacked, and they fight back, and in doing so, cause a fairly minor injury (i.e. break the attacker's arm or leg, or something) and the attacker sues them, and is successful, and the victim has to pay them! I mean, okay, if they really, really went over the top and absolutely battered them, then yes- but if they just broke their arm, or something like that, then I don't see why the victim should have to pay up. It was the attacker's own fault.

[Chocoholic]

What I think is unfair, though, is if someone is attacked, and they fight back, and in doing so, cause a fairly minor injury (i.e. break the attacker's arm or leg, or something) and the attacker sues them, and is successful, and the victim has to pay them! I mean, okay, if they really, really went over the top and absolutely battered them, then yes- but if they just broke their arm, or something like that, then I don't see why the victim should have to pay up. It was the attacker's own fault.

I don't think the victim should be charged or have to pay for damages to the creep. Law-abiding citizens have the right to defend themselves and their property. If some lowlife thug gets injured or killed while attempting to commit a crime, then I'm not going to cry for them. They got exactly what they deserved. I'm not armed, but if someone was attacking me or my property I would do anything to stop them.

I remember reading a letter in one of those advice columns a few years ago. (I'm pretty sure it was Ann Landers. She was one classy lady.) It was from a person who suffered from depression, was caught shoplifting from a store, and as part of her punishment was banned from the store for life. In her letter, she couldn't understand why the manager was so cruel to her for punishimg her that way and making her feel bad. (Wah wah!) Annie's reply was that SHE was the one who had committed a crime, not the store manager and that maybe that incident would be a valuable lesson to her.

[Jrnygrl]

BEAT HIS A##!

[Sharop]

If some lowlife thug gets injured or killed while attempting to commit a crime, then I'm not going to cry for them. They got exactly what they deserved.

I think if a burglar is unarmed and doesn't pose too much of a threat, then then the victim should probably try to refrain from actually killing them. There was a case in Britain about a guy whose house was broken into by a group of teenagers, who were unarmed. Now, to be fair, this man had had people breaking into his house for some time, and had grown quite paranoid and scared, and was absolutely sick of it.

Anyway, he found the burglars in his house and shot at them (I'm pretty sure he came up on them from behind and shot at them then.) One of the burglars was (I think) permanently injured, and one of them was killed. The guy ended up serving some time in prison, but has now been released.

There was quite a lot of discussion about this. Some people thought the guy shouldn't have been sent to jail at all, others thought that, since the burglars were unarmed, and had not attacked him, that he shouldn't have just gone and shot at them.

I can understand why he did it, since he would have been feeling scared and angry, and this kind of thing had been going on for a while - but I do think it would have been better if he hadn't shot them. I don't really think the guy who was killed deserved to die.

Having said that, if anyone burgled my house, I'd probably feel like killing them. Although, I wouldn't, of course - but I'd be mad.

That's why I wish we could set all those booby traps on them.

[GARFIELDKOOL]

I remember when I was 18, me and my brother had beat this guy to a bloody pulp who crashed through a window in our house. he was on drugs, so he didn't know where he was at. My mother had her bedroom downstairs in the room where he crashed. So natural reaction forced me and my brother to beat the guy before he could do anything. The police did come and arrested the guy for breaking and entering, but they warned my brother and me if we keep up the beating, we would go to jail.

I'm not saying this is the best way to deal with a burglar, but people's reactions will vary.

[Georgia's on my Mind]

I'm so scared of being attacked.

[Ireneparalegal]

I remember when I was 18, me and my brother had beat this guy to a bloody pulp who crashed through a window in our house. he was on drugs, so he didn't know where he was at. My mother had her bedroom downstairs in the room where he crashed. So natural reaction forced me and my brother to beat the guy before he could do anything. The police did come and arrested the guy for breaking and entering, but they warned my brother and me if we keep up the beating, we would go to jail.

I'm not saying this is the best way to deal with a burglar, but people's reactions will vary.
:thumbsup:

[tdf4077]

On "It takes a Thief," they always say if you find someone in your house, you should leaver your house as soon as possible and call the cops!