Hey guys...
My dad's house was broken into earlier today (just heard about it a second ago), and I'm going down to spend the night with him in the event that the burglars return (they didn't manage to take anything the first time, because the alarm went off, but they broke the door down, and he's in a bad neighbourhood).
So anyway, only a little while until I leave... would it be advisable to take a weapon with me? Probably a knife (I'm Australian)? If I end up using said weapon in self-defence, will it come back to bite me in the ass legally?
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I know this is irregular, but I also know that you guys can give some pretty solid legal advice.
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EDIT: Thanks for all the replies people! Too much to quote and answer, so in summary:
- I don't own a deadly yet lovable local animal as a pet. I can't catapult box jellyfish at them, I can't throw baskets full of snakes at them, I can't send a Kangaroo with boxing gloves at them, and I don't have any terrifying spiders with which to harvest their dying screams.
- They initially broke in during the day, while my dad was at work. Not during the night.
- My dad isn't rich at all... the opposite, in fact. However, his house looks rich (when we bought it cheap from the bank though, the house was vandalised to shit... no electricity, no hot water, trashed rooms, broken roof/floors/doors, graffiti and dead insects everywhere, etc), and is located in a very poor (and criminal-populated) neighbourhood. It stands out.
- We have good reason to believe that the intruders aren't just petty burglars, and that they'll return. The police also indicated that they were probably fairly-strong adult males, and that they were wearing gloves when they broke in.
- Australian burglars aren't as civil as the burglars a few of you might be familiar with... round here, plenty of robbers won't think twice about bashing even an elderly couple inside their own home. Fellow Australians know who/what I'm talking about.
- I'm not American, and thus don't own a baseball bat or gun... but I found a nice, thick, metre-long, hefty steel bar instead, as well as a cricket bat... for close encounters of the burglar kind. I've left them with my dad for now. They shouldn't look too out-of-place sitting in a garage/house.
- A lot of people telling me that it's inadvisable to fight an intruder... well I wouldn't normally suggest it, but I'm fairly-well trained in Krav Maga, and my dad was in the special forces (and is still in good physical shape). Trust me, I'd only fight them off as a last resort anyway, but I think we could subdue or detain them if we needed to.
.
Just wanted to note... to my knowledge, in Australia you can only use equal and not superior force to fend off an intruder right? I know the laws here are ridiculous, and that they almost favour the attacker (who's prepared), but I'm not quite sure where the boundaries lie. As far as I know, even using pepper spray against an unarmed burglar could land you in trouble, unless you're at a physical disadvantage.
I'd be happy if someone could clarify.
My dad's house was broken into earlier today (just heard about it a second ago), and I'm going down to spend the night with him in the event that the burglars return (they didn't manage to take anything the first time, because the alarm went off, but they broke the door down, and he's in a bad neighbourhood).
So anyway, only a little while until I leave... would it be advisable to take a weapon with me? Probably a knife (I'm Australian)? If I end up using said weapon in self-defence, will it come back to bite me in the ass legally?
.
I know this is irregular, but I also know that you guys can give some pretty solid legal advice.
.
.
.
.
.
EDIT: Thanks for all the replies people! Too much to quote and answer, so in summary:
- I don't own a deadly yet lovable local animal as a pet. I can't catapult box jellyfish at them, I can't throw baskets full of snakes at them, I can't send a Kangaroo with boxing gloves at them, and I don't have any terrifying spiders with which to harvest their dying screams.
- They initially broke in during the day, while my dad was at work. Not during the night.
- My dad isn't rich at all... the opposite, in fact. However, his house looks rich (when we bought it cheap from the bank though, the house was vandalised to shit... no electricity, no hot water, trashed rooms, broken roof/floors/doors, graffiti and dead insects everywhere, etc), and is located in a very poor (and criminal-populated) neighbourhood. It stands out.
- We have good reason to believe that the intruders aren't just petty burglars, and that they'll return. The police also indicated that they were probably fairly-strong adult males, and that they were wearing gloves when they broke in.
- Australian burglars aren't as civil as the burglars a few of you might be familiar with... round here, plenty of robbers won't think twice about bashing even an elderly couple inside their own home. Fellow Australians know who/what I'm talking about.
- I'm not American, and thus don't own a baseball bat or gun... but I found a nice, thick, metre-long, hefty steel bar instead, as well as a cricket bat... for close encounters of the burglar kind. I've left them with my dad for now. They shouldn't look too out-of-place sitting in a garage/house.
- A lot of people telling me that it's inadvisable to fight an intruder... well I wouldn't normally suggest it, but I'm fairly-well trained in Krav Maga, and my dad was in the special forces (and is still in good physical shape). Trust me, I'd only fight them off as a last resort anyway, but I think we could subdue or detain them if we needed to.
.
Just wanted to note... to my knowledge, in Australia you can only use equal and not superior force to fend off an intruder right? I know the laws here are ridiculous, and that they almost favour the attacker (who's prepared), but I'm not quite sure where the boundaries lie. As far as I know, even using pepper spray against an unarmed burglar could land you in trouble, unless you're at a physical disadvantage.
I'd be happy if someone could clarify.
