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This has been a very thought-provoking, informative THT thread. I have learned a great deal from those who contributed. (And I'll bet your 20-year-old neighbor is on meth.)
I don't think the coat hanger would work on a door opening out. On those doors (one of them in my house), my wife set something in front of the door that had to be moved. This was her idea and I think, for the most part, it works pretty well.
In SC, castle doctrine is in place. You have the right to defend yourself with deadly force when your house is broken into. In a dark room, it is almost impossible to see if the perp is armed or not. Who's to say that a person running away couldn't turn around suddenly with a gun and open fire?
If that person had broken into my house, my family's safety takes precedent over the rights and personal well-being of the intruder.
In other words, he'd be a dead SOB......
Edited to add: I am glad you and your family was not harmed. At the very least, you can call this a learning experience and have put something in place to keep it from happening again.
I am very glad it worked out, it could have easily not.
While I am not acquantanted with laws in your state, there are ALWAYS ways to show fear, its all in the ARTICULATION. Its a shame that in some places in the USA citizens have to worry more about a trial than what an unknown intruder's intentions are in ur house. I know that if I shot someone inside my house I could sleep soundly every night knowing the bad guy made the decision to break in my house and possibly hurt my family. There would also be only one story told, so its hard to dispute what actions the suspect made or what he SAID.
__________________ "I'm suing the THT and the guy that made it."
Something I didn't see mentioned yet, if there is someone in your house, or if you think there is someone in your house, GET OUT NOW!!! Do not attempt o 'clear' the house yourself. Think; cops are trained to do this task and a cop will NOT do it by himself. You sure as hell shouldn't either. Clearing a building is dangerous beyond belief. Cracker can tell you.
Whether you are armed or not, if you are in your house and do not have a KNOWN clear path to the door out, ether (a) go out a window, or (b) barricade yourself in a room and call 9-11. You will need to tell them which room you are in.
You can forget about the 'castle' this and the 'castle' that crap. Shooting someone comes down to a perceived threat level. If you are willing to use lethal force to protect yourself, your family, and/or your property, it REQUIRES forethought and resolve to actually use lethal force BEFORE the situation that requires it occurs. You need to decide that threat level now, and decide what your action will be, now.
Something that is frequently overlooked is what you are going to do if a member of your family to taken hostage in your own home. It is especially important to think this through if you expect to be armed when a family member is taken hostage. You need to make those decisions now. You can tell the folks that have not thought about this; they are the ones that depend on a shotgun for defense.
What we are hearing here are differences based on areas of the country. Up north, when he broke in you should have gotten out the vaseline and bend you and you wife and kids over and let him screw you and hope you do it right so he doesn't sue you. In GEORGIA, you blow the azzhole's head off as soon as he comes through the door and get a garbage bag under hims as quick as possible so he's brains and blood don't ruin the carpet. Call the sheriff and tell hem what happened. Around here there will be no CSI bullchit. The coroner will come and haul his azz off and the sheriff will say he's sorry for not busting this guy earlier and tell everyone he's hopes that we'll be OK and forget about it and go back to bed. They will cremate him as to save the taxpayers money.
Ahhhhh, gotta love small north Georgia living and justice. Any you yanks need any vaseline, I got a big jar that has never been opened.
Something I didn't see mentioned yet, if there is someone in your house, or if you think there is someone in your house, GET OUT NOW!!! Do not attempt o 'clear' the house yourself. Think; cops are trained to do this task and a cop will NOT do it by himself. You sure as hell shouldn't either. Clearing a building is dangerous beyond belief. Cracker can tell you.
yes it is dangerous clearing a house, but most of us have children or others that live with us and leaving the house is not practical. My house, my story, Bad decision on the suspect's part.
__________________ "I'm suing the THT and the guy that made it."
I do want to add if you suspect someone might be coming and going while you are out. You may have seen it in movies, etc... but it works. Take a toothpick or something else that is very small and close it in the door between the jamb and door's edge just shy of knee high (lower, it could be displaced by a foot. Higher it could be displaced by a knee. You want it at shin height...plus it's out of line of sight). Now, if you come home and see it sitting on the ground...something opened the door while you were out.
I used this technique to catch someone stealing things from my office. I knew that someone came in while I was out. Without touching the knob, I called the police, and had them pull prints. That alone was enough for the person to come forward and ask what's going on... they admitted to it and were promptly arrested. Too bad they worked with me. It works... try it on any door to get an idea of what to look for.
There is absoutely no needs or property worth leaving your defensive position just so you can confront the perp.
Unless the perp is stealing your boat/large center console.
Then all hell break lose - give me another magazine.
Now you know why there are bullet holes in those outboards. Them perp was hiding behind them outboards.
This is an excerpt of Louisiana's definition of justifiable homicide:
"When committed by a person lawfully inside a dwelling, a place of business, or a motor vehicle as defined in R.S. 32:1(40), against a person who is attempting to make an unlawful entry into the dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle, or who has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle, and the person committing the homicide reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the entry or to compel the intruder to leave the premises or motor vehicle."
We also have the presumption that other states do:
"...there shall be a presumption that a person lawfully inside a dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle held a reasonable belief that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent unlawful entry thereto, or to compel an unlawful intruder to leave the premises or motor vehicle, if both of the following occur:
(1) The person against whom deadly force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcibly entering or had unlawfully and forcibly entered the dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle.
(2) The person who used deadly force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry was occurring or had occurred."
The funny part is that you must think you need to use deadly force to compel him to leave...in a bag.
However, one should still use some common sense. A few years back, a homeowner in Baton Rouge saw 2 people walking up his front walkway. They were wearing masks. When they reached the door and rang his bell, he opened the door and shot one of them, killing him. The problem with that? It was two college kids, the dead one an exchange student from Japan. They were going to a Halloween party on Halloween night at a neighbor's house. They had the wrong house. The homeowner got off. I mean come on, you shoot anyone with a mask on Halloween?
Edited to note that the two were high school kids and were not actually wearing masks. The dead kid was dressedlike JOhn Travolta and his friend like a car accident victim. The Japanese kids family later won a wrongful death action against the homeowner and his insurer.
The case was Hattori v. Peairs. Good example of how not to handle such a situation.
That probably would have not worked out very well. Especially if the guy was unarmed and made no attempt to attack you.
WTF???!!!
If someone breaks into MY house at 1:00 A.M. while my family is home asleep that person will leave my house in a body bag.
And you will leave your house in hand cuffs.
Just because someone is in your house does not give you the legal right to kill them. If you shoot an unarmed man in your house and kill him your gonna have a hell of a time talking your way out of it.
I don't care what you do it's your house. But, you don't need to give people on here the idea that it's legal to kill just because they are in your house.
BS! You can kill them dead where I live and it happens all the time. You can even kill them if they are outside trying to get in. At least thats how the law is written some liberal judge may interpret it incorrectly!
I want to propose a real situation that happened this summer to those of you who say shoot and ask questions later. We were on vacation and our 21 year old daughter had the responsibility of taking care of our pets. She got tied up one evening and asked two of her college friends to stop by and feed the dogs. They went to our home, found the hidden key under the front mat and started going through the pantry to retrieve the dog food. Unfortunately, they pulled down the wrong driveway and were in the home of my next door neighbors - a family with two small children. The woman got out of bed to find two very stunned young ladies rummaging through her kitchen cabinets. Upon confronting the girls, they told the woman that they didn't realize anyone was home and that they had been asked to feed the dog and that they had gotten the key from under the mat. When they mentioned our daughter's name, the neighbor realized what had happened - and found a new place to hide her key. She told me later how glad she was that her husband was out of town when this happened, because he would have been armed and might have shot both of them.
I know this is different from cudacat's incident, but what do ya'll think?
That is whi common sense should be exercised. I don't know about in other states, but in La. you need to reasonable "believe" the force was necessary to stop/make the guy leave. I'd think cudacat would have a hard time to convince anyone that he thought he needed deadly force to make the guy leave when he was actually running out the door.
One night I was out drinking at the local bar right down the street that we walk to so we always get pretty tipsy about once a month just old highschool buddies. Well one night one of my friends wandered off and somehow made it to my house. He was pretty drunk. he tried getting in the front door and that didnt work so in all his haste and confusion he decided to go to the porch window. It was unlocked and he started to open it. As he slid his first leg in he was suddenly drug in the house by my 75 lbs German Shepherd. She grabbed him and pulled him into the house then I guess realized it was him and let go. I got home and thought a murder had occurred. I'd rather her mangle a friendly intruder then miss a bad guy anyday!!
Glad you're OK andthat I live in FL. My dog would have gone nuts, all5 pounds of him.
It would have been his last bad decision.
__________________
"Destination"
2005 Contender 27 Yamaha F225's
Actually, You DON'T disagree with me. You THINK you disagree with me, but you're mistaken. You're simply experiencing an illusion caused by the limits of your comprehension. -Dilbert
Re: Burglar in My House 
