Thoughts On Breaking And Entering

I am an upstanding citizen. I do alot of volenteer work around my town. I always try to do the right thing and abide by the law.
In a survival situation whether its finding a cabin in the middle of the woods or urban survival during a disaster, is breaking and entering for shelter ok? Morally and Lawfully? Do you leave a note saying you were there, sorry, and thank you?

 

Do you think in an emergency situation you would have charges pressed against you?

 

I dont know where you are but here there's an old saying that is repeated in the court of law "Nöden har ingen lag" meaning "Need knows no laws".

 

In the end it comes down to need, respect for others and good sense. If it was my property that was broken into in an emergency I would hope the place wasn't trashed and you only took what was needed.
There are often places that are left unlocked with a few basics, a fire layed in a stove, a box of matches in a tin ready to light it.
cabins, lodges or bothies, whatever you want to call them, put there to save lives.
Cut more firewood and lay the fire before you go. Try to leave it as you found it.

 

This has happened in a lot of emergency situations. I remember a guy breaking into a two story house so he could get out of the water when Hurricane Sandy went in in NYC. He even left them a note and a sort of just in case last goodbye to his family. Nobody was in the least mad at him.

As far as the criminal part goes that has a lot to do with where you live. I know that in Texas a lot of things get suspended when there is an emergency of when bad things are happening. I asked a cop about something a little like this one time and he told me that it was always better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6. The 12 jurists offer you a chance of getting off Scott free the 6 pallbearers are a "dead" end.

Make sure there is nobody home!! That means make a LOT of noise AND clear each room visibly before you relax. I have done a lot of work on rental properties for the landlord and even though he can give me permission to go in to work it is STILL someones home and I have had several hair raising experiences before I made it a rule to check EVERY room before going to work. I also had little posters made that I put on the door so if they came home they would know that I was there and when I left they would know that I had been there. Early on a very pretty and scantily clad young woman just scared each other nearly to DEATH. I had beat on the door and yelled when I came in...she was deaf! I had a sound sleeper come up behind me with a gun and that was it I check every room AND the bathrooms before I settle in to work!

After a near world ending event there are going to be lots of abandoned places and I have no doubt that scavenging will be an important thing. If you decide to do this DON'T be sneaky!! Make positive for sure that nobody is there. Either owners or squatters are going to be nervous and may shoot first and ask questions later.

Along these lines I actually carry a burglary kit in my truck as part of my get home kit. a fubar (cross between a hatchet and a crow bar), bolt cutters, lock picks, sledge hammer, siphoning tools and a hand pump for getting gas even if the power is off. This stuff and a few other things that will expedite my entry into a building if that is what I need to do. Even my bugout bag has a small pry bar and lock picks.

I don't seem to EVER be able to keep it short!

 

Here in Florida some years ago a group of kids were coneing on a river it got cold and two kids did not keep up they died from hypothermia out side of a house on the river because they did not break into so if it's me I would but would not destroy getting in most windows or doors are easy to get into

 

Well, if you are in a dire situation, knock on the door and say so. Very few people wants you to harm.

 

There are places in the world where people recognize the need to survive. In northern places most are understanding if your life is in danger. Don't freeze to death! If they respect you enough to be understanding when your trying to survive. then you should be respectful enough to treat the place as you would want it treated if it was yours.

If you were Canada or Alaska the people would try to help you in today's world.

This is still different than post shtf. How bad is the shtf situation? Bad? its a free for all? It some really bad situations it is possible the owner may never return. Weight it out.

 

First-off, let me say that the last place to break into would be a private residence. That's getting waaaaaaaay personal. Will get you shot going in. Will get you shot if someone returns. Will get you shot attempting to leave. Plus, you'll have to dedicate one of your crew to take care of the perimeter.

If I had to take shelter -- and what I'm talking about is obtaining a roof and windbreak -- I'd bust into what had been a business. I'd pick something royally abandoned and a building made of masonry (else you can get shot by those riddling the outside with a center-fire rifle). Indeed the seeking of shelter could be due to your continually taking fire -- gotta find a place to hunker-down.

Still talking about small-business property, when it hits the fan, MOST of these operations are going to be economic toast, right? Right. And let's say you knock only to find the newly impoverished owner to be on-site, why would that necessarily mean conflict?! Maybe with coin or barter, you can pay him some rent. The barter could be your providing some security for the place; your just being there armed = strength in numbers. Chaos can be turned into unity, positive stuff. Your mates can keep an eye on the owner should he get hinky. And yes if I'm out traveling in such dire times, I pray God that I'd have been able to put together a crew for the "adventure" -- not having eyes in the back of my head, and all.

In my SUV, I keep a 4' wrecking bar mainly for extracting a victim from a car accident or getting a quarter-panel off a wheel to move a vehicle post-accident. I also have a two-pound hammer and other not-small tools. I don't carry bolt-cutters, else some cop if searching my vehicle will consider me a second-career burglar (and there's a lot of such folk out there). During hard-times, I'm taking the three-foot handled bolt cutters. Breaking into places is a royal pain -- and I'm talking getting through windows. Steal doors almost require the mass of a vehicle; you'll be beating on such doors all day if all you have is a sledge hammer.

 

Side item / interesting thing I just learned recently:

Call me naive, but in talking with a lady who handles storage rentals (we are no strangers to moving ourselves and others), she said that she must routinely evict people living in their storage spaces. Must say, I was a bit taken-aback by her having to do that and continually, no less. Me, I think only of putting my excess crap in such units. Guess I'm spoiled.

Think maybe during really, really hard times homeless folk will be seeking shelter in your workshop out back, your tractor shed, anything with a roof?! You betcha'!

So maybe I should buy some of these portable storage sheds and become an evil, armed, turbo-nasty slum-lord when it hits the fan. Maybe I could charge FEMA for my "service to the community". Oh man, I'm going to hell.

 

Homeless people or people that are underemployed are struggling and when people need they look for safe places to live. I know a couple of people that own "mini" warehouses and the reason the occasionally HAVE to throw people out is because they aren't zoned for people to live there and don't have the bathroom facilities to legally allow people to live there.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! We have tons of empty places all over the place and they need to house the homeless in them. Take one closed motel and make housing for hundreds of homeless people. Now that said, if you want to live there you WILL be drug free and not turn it into a freaking cesspool of filth. If you want to do and sell drugs then live under the bridges and in the alleys.