If There's an Intruder in Your House
"Honey, did you hear a noise downstairs?" Everyone's afraid of finding someone in the house at night. If it happens to you, do all you can to avoid a confrontation. Your life is more important than your stuff.
-Run away if you can and call police.
-If you can't get yourself and your family out of the house, lock yourselves in a room.
-If you’re face to face with an intruder, stay calm and be cooperative.
What about using force?
You do have a legal right to protect yourself and your property. Some homeowners keep a gun handy for just such an occasion, although more people get shot with their own guns than use them to frighten off or disable intruders. If you did shoot an intruder or whack him over the head with an iron pipe--then found yourself in court on assault charges--you could argue that you acted in self-defense or in defense of your property. It would be up to the jury to decide whether or not to believe you.
Basically, the law says that you can use reasonable force to defend yourself if you're being attacked or if you have a reasonable belief that you will be. That is, you don't have to wait until the intruder is actually coming at you with a knife. The key word here is "reasonable"; the jury would have to decide whether a reasonable person would have thought that the toy gun was real or that the hand going into the pocket was reaching for a weapon. States vary widely on what they consider "reasonable force." In general, if you use force against an intruder, use no more than appears necessary. That is, if a shout sends the burglar running, don't pull a gun and shoot him in the back. If a single blow stops a burglar in his tracks, don't beat him to a pulp. If the intruder isn't threatening bodily harm to someone in the house, you're on shaky ground if you use deadly force.
Some courts have held that a homeowner who could retreat safely isn't justified in beating or killing the intruder. Likewise, courts have held that a homeowner isn't justified in attacking a burglar if it appears that a shout or warning would be enough.
What about booby-trapping your home to keep burglars out? Despite the popularity of the movie "Home Alone," people have gotten into serious legal trouble for that sort of thing. Even if you're fed up with repeated break-ins, you can't set up a gun rigged to shoot anyone who comes through the window. It's not up to you to impose a death sentence on someone who might try to break in. And the next person through the window might be a firefighter trying to save you.
