To think that if you get stabbed by the owner of the house you're trying to rob...

[BupcakesandCunting]

That it's an occupational hazard of being a burglar?

Obviously I am NOT glad that someone has died here but if you break into a property, you cannot guarantee that you will come out of it very well off. If someone broke into my house, I don't know how I would react but if I felt that my family were under threat and I was panicking, I imagine it would be very easy to go OTT and the other person come off worse.

I know that the law says that you're supposed to use "reasonable force" but heat of the moment/panicking etc etc...

What does everyone else think?

desiderata your comment is totally ridiculous...

Burglers definitely do break into homes with dogs.

They broke into my parents house....they drugged the dog before ransacking the house. He was so traumatised he was shaking and wouldn't go out for weeks. I believe it was cocaine that they gave him.

It's not totally ridiculous though. If there's a choice between an empty dogless house and an occcupied dog-filled house burglars will choose the empty dogless house. Or a family house and a pensioner house, they will choose the pensioner house. Opportunists shamble around gardens trying doors and windows.

They don't enter houses where there are dogs.

Yes, the above statement was TOTALLY ridiculous

Guess this can be quite an emotional subject, especially if it has happened to you so when someone makes blanket statements it can be annoying as they are almost suggesting that we are lying. Yes most burglars will look for the easier option but not all - why make blanket statements when you can get your point across correctly by wording your statement in a better way.

It's not just burglars, robbers and rapists who force entry to other people's houses - confused elderly, those with learning difficulties, children, people who are mentally (I broke into a house under delusion there was some sort of animal welfare crisis happening inside at about 2am). It is very important that the law is balanced to protect as many people who will unwittingly fall foul of it as possible, this is why occupiers liability act 'protects' intruders too.

dropped this: *ill

no it's not, it's an exaggerration

they do avoid houses where there are dogs if they can

"totally ridiculous" implies it's a most bizarre idea

not at all

Expat - Sorry but your posts did read very oddly. Completely different writing voice and everything.

I am also a bit at everyone who knows exactly what they would do. Like others have pointed out, there's no way of knowing. And drug addicts in need of a fix are very scary people indeed. In that sort of situation, I'd tell them to take what they wanted and go and leave my ktichen knives out of it.

You made a very good point there Dilys - and, apologies in advance, I had to laugh at your urgent mission to rescue imaginary animals

I've had more than my share of personal attacks - not due to any weirdness, just living an adventurous life. It might surprise some to hear that I have always asked them what they want! I had proper self-defence training in my teens, and the whole thing was underpinned by understanding your attacker.

Have always come out pretty much unscathed, thank goodness :)
And have never killed anyone! Nor even maimed anyone, though I was full prepared to at certain times.

garlicnutter, you can ask attackers what they want or check what kind of striped shirt they are wearing (vertical stripes means murderer?) but back in the real world anyone who breaks into my place will either leave as a murderer or a corpse.

I am not James Bond and could lose a fight easily. My chances won't even be 50/50, but I will never have to live with it on my conscious that I had a chance to stop an intruder and let it pass because 'murderers/rapists have rights too'

The idea that someone would find an intruder in their house and let him carry on is one that I find hard to picture. if he goes to the kids room do you open the door for him if he promises he is only a burglar?

That post is a bit silly, onagar. I wrote about asking what they want because somebody further upthread said "Are you supposed to ask them" as if it were a ridiculous idea. It's not ridiculous, it's the very useful foundation for knowing how to protect yourself against different kinds of attacker. My training was run by the police and, as I've said, it's worked for me on many occasions.

Lots of people here are saying they'd murder anyone who got into their house. Not only is that unlikely to succeed, but if they killed someone (who wasn't actively trying to kill them), they'd deserve the prison sentence. Plus, they would have to deal with the trauma of having ended the life of another human being. You might think you'd dust yourself off and feel satisfied, but you wouldn't unless you're a psychopath or have got used to the sight & smell of a fatally injured body ... and the knowledge you'd just deprived a mother; a wife; her children, of the man's future.

I found a burglar in my kitchen last summer! I asked him what he was looking for; he made up some daft story and I politely (in my Headmistress voice) sent him out my back gate.

I rang the cops, they came and took a description; they knew who they thought it was - a sneak thief who'd been pinching small stuff from old people's homes, etc to buy his heroin. They arrested him & told him I'd given a description, he confessed and is now in the nick. Not dead, I'm happy to say.

garlicnutter, I happen to think that asking an intruder what they want is ridiculous and dangerous. I also have serious doubts that the police run training courses where they suggest engaging intruders in conversation. They'd be more likely to suggest you retreated and called them I would think.

I see you also saying about shooting an intruder in the arm or leg. Straight out of cowboy films I'm afraid just as the talking to them thing and being able to tell their intentions is out of Miss Marple.

I seem to have threatened your very know-it-all view of the world, onagar

Never mind.

"anyone who breaks into my place will either leave as a murderer or a corpse"

that is just WEIRD

Gooseberry - I know. It's all gone a bit macho on here hasn't it? Especially when you think that householders killing burgalars and even vice versa is extremely rare in the UK

well quite, thousands and thousands of burglaries and quite a lot of them in occupied houses

most people just don't wake up at all I imagine

Gooseberrybushes "totally ridiculous" implies it's a most bizarre idea

and stating point blank that burglars don't enter houses where there are dogs is indeed ridiculous...as I mentioned before...but you failed to grasp the context gooseberry (although I appreciate that if you are looking for an argument it's quite handy to ignore the context).

Anyways - to suggest that burglars tend to avoid houses which contain dogs is less than ridiculous and far more plausible.

You see if you get the context right...it all makes sense!

I'm afraid you are as guilty as Desi of hyperbole

(although I appreciate that if you are looking for an argument it's quite handy to ignore the context).

oh I missed this

get lost