If you found yourself, and your family, in the middle of a tornado, could you be sued for breaking into someone's house to take shelter?

In USA you can sue anyone for anything. No clue if it would stick in court.

Breaking and entry is of course against the law and if you were sued it would depend on how the courts viewed the circumstances. In the US I’d be more scared of being shot by the owner or the police than of the tornado.

In the US, anyone can file a lawsuit. Whether it goes to court depends upon the state laws.

Just to clarify, your son was in the car? That wasn’t stated in the second sentence. Since the son used a credit card to open the door, it t might be considered as entering or breaking, even if he didn’t step across the threshold. If he had called the police to let them know what he had done, that might nullify the circumstances. Then again, perhaps not. It might depend upon the local law and how far the homeowners were willing to press.

I’m sorry. I just figured everyone knew what a road trip was.

And with the way I asked the question, I guess the short answer is “Yes.” I rather wish I’d asked if you (anyone) would take that risk to protect your children. I would! Laws be damned!

@Dutchess_III I know what a road trip is. The second sentence implied that the son was not there.

If you meant to ask what would be done to protect my children, then the initial response might have been different. Whether I would break into the home or not is unknown.

I’ve experienced a similar situation, and all I can say is that I pretty much shut down. This took place while on the interstate. Once the worst seemed to have past, I continued the way to work. The next few weeks were bizarre.

I don’t think it’s a question of a civil suit, although as @RedDeerGuy1 said anybody can sue anybody for anything. The question is that would it be a criminal offense breaking and entering. Your son would not have done any damage to the house (like breaking a window) as he was able to successfully pick the lock with a credit card, and I doubt that any peace officer would arrest them for it. So honestly I think he would have been fine. If he left 20 bucks with a thank you note on the table it would even be better.

OIC. Sorry. Didn’t proof read well enough. My bad @Pied_Pfeffer. I guess it was pretty freaking terrifying. And it came, literally, out of the blue. There was no warning.

It would not be b&e in a life and death situation.
Calling the sheriff after would have been best.
There are law provisions for extreme circumstances, such as killing when feeling life threatened, and taking a child you know is in harm’s way.
Of course, after, while waiting for the sheriff, if someone came home, your state’s law involving lethal protection of home and family comes into play. Your son would need to explain quick b4 lethal action is taken against him.
Having spent the majority of my life in tornado alley, at one location or another, I find it hard to believe anyone would fault someone doing what he did. I think he showed great presence of mind and strong nerve in a situation which gives very little time and can really rattle the nerves of anyone.

Like someone said I would be scared more to be shot by the owner if he / she happens to come back before leaving than the lawsuit.

No. That is called necessity and is a dependable defense in such a situation. You pay for any damage you do though.

Well, if the owners had returned in the middle of the storm and found a strange car in the driveway I’m fairly sure they’d suss out pretty quick what was up. Not everyone with a gun fires as a knee jerk reaction. I think most have enough brains to try and determine if there is actually a threat before opening fire.

Right. I said they could, but likely wouldn’t, unless your son looks like a seven foot, four hundred pound prison escapee.

Your son could also have used his magic credit card to block the bullitt.

Is your son black? It matters.

You can be sued.
If you took nothing, and damaged nothing and you had anything but a loser as an attorney you would not be held accountable.

The law is still in effect without exception. He can still be sued but perhaps with a bit lighter penalty depending on the existence of burden of proof and judges’ decision.

I, myself, will never break in to someone’s else house regardless of the circumstances. The owner could make a myriad of reason why you’re wrong and especially if the law is sided with them. Nobody wants Goldilocks in their house.

If I came home to find cops getting statements from some guy and his family who narrowly missed death by sitting in my basement, I would have hugs for all, and be glad their body parts were not strewn throughout the neighborhood.
And then I would check to see if any of my goodies were missing.

If I were to stereotype the areas of the country that are hit by the most severe and frequent tornadoes (Tornado Alley) I would say most homeowners would be happy to open their doors to protect people in harms way. They also are most likely to own guns, so if they aren’t sure about you they might shoot you. I can’t imagine a homeowner suing for someone breaking in in that circumstance if everything seemed intact, it could happen though.

What would they sue for? Breaking the lock? I’m sure your son would have paid for it without suing him. If anything, if the homeowners try to blame him for a missing diamond necklace, possibly your son runs more risk than the homeowner in a way.

I would enter the house making a ton of noise, I mean you are helping the homeowner too. They need to get to the safest place in heir house, maybe they don’t know the twister is coming!

Calling the cops makes sense, the local police could call the homeowners and it would all be up front.

In parts of the country where bear sightings are common, people purposely leave doors unlocked so people walking can find safety in someone’s car if a bear is near them. Maybe they leave homes open too, I don’t know.

I keep picturing Tom Cruise in War Of The Worlds.

@Unofficial_Member You wouldn’t do it to save your children?

I agree with @JLeslie. I also think that 99% of the people around here would be more than happy to open their doors, either voluntarily or other wise, to shelter strangers. I know I would.

@Dutchess_III What comes to my mind first is whether or not it is a crime. The most I’ll do is park right beside the house. I must admit, though, that half of the ‘fault’ lies with the owner of the house. A house with fragile measure of entrance security is just asking to be broken in to by someone else. Just like laying a bunch of money on your yard and come back to pick it up at later time and hope that it’s still there.

Would it make any difference if the house is impossible to get in to due to its tight security? You’ll still ended up not breaking in to the house anyway. I wouldn’t think that just because you personally feel it’s right and justified to do it or think that it’s the general rule of conduct other people will also practice the same thing. People are raised with different background and each individuals have different perspective. I know that many of the locals here will immediately yell for help and try to beat you without caring about your explanation when you, as a stranger, suddenly break in to their house. I can’t blame them, the fear of being robbed is real here, and it does happen, very often, as a matter of fact.

I have been under a tornado that didn’t touch down. I have been in a tornado.
You see one of those bitches coming at you, I promise, if you can, you will crawl right up in your own arse to not be in its way.

@Unofficial_Member I have said on Q’s before that I like to have one car that’s not expensive so when I need to go to a bad area I’m not driving my Porsche. You know, I don’t want to attract attention, but WTH are you talking about it’s the owner’s fault his house might get broken into? You take it one step too far. It’s not the fault of the person who is victim to a crime. It’s not the girls fault she was raped because she wore a mini skirt, and it’s not the man’s fault he was robber, because he wore a Rolex watch.

Having said that, committing a crime is sometimes the right thing to do. Trespassing on someone’s property because you see a 4 year old drowning in a pool is the right thing to do, the law will understand. Going in with national troops after Hurricane Katrina without the governor’s giving permission, It would have been the right thing to do. Saving oneself as a tornado comes barreling down, that too would be understood, and if the house is easily broken into, it’s better for the owner. If the person can just walk right in then no windows are smashed and not locks are broken.

If the tornado is right next to you you are supposed to go to the basement of a house or building, literally our government recommends, to seek the closest sturdy building (never go to a mobile home) if the tornado is in the distance enough that the driver believes he can make it to the shelter. If there is no basement then go to an interior room, and cover your body with a blanket or mattress or go under a table. It’s recommended to abandon your car, even though that might seem counterintuitive. Abondon your car for a ditch! If there is not low lying ground then stay in your car and cover your head if possible and put in your seat belt. Cars get airborn in tornadoes.

@JLeslie I believe each cases should be treated separately and differently. The ‘fault’ I was referring in my post is the type of personal negligence that has the forseeable outcome of causing harm/loss either to the person themselves or to other people. If you let your door unlocked, your children unsupervised, not taking recommended medicine thinking that your body can handle it, etc and someday things in your house got stolen, your children kidnapped, your health deteriorating, etc then will you honestly believe people won’t say that it was all your fault for not taking preventative measures towards all those forseeable outcome? There are bad people in this world and of course it is their fault for causing troubles to other people but if you know what they might do to you and do nothing to prevent that/make it easier for them to do perform their job then you, too, will share a fault for neglecting to protect yourself/assests.

Of course there are exception to every rules but ultimately whether or not the perpetrator will suffer any repercussion will depend on how they present their burden of proof in the court. The property owner definitely won’t sue the person that saved someone, especially someone that is most likely part of house family, however, in the situation where you got home and suddenly found some strangers in your house you can bet that most people wouldn’t like that. If they explained it was because of the tornado, how long has it been since the tornade died down and you still lingering in the house? Some bad people can disguise themselves as people seeking shelter and use the tornado (or the aftermath of tornado) as an excuse to break in to or linger in someone’s house and commit crime. Can you blame the owner for not trusting some strangers? Everything will be fine if it is an honest situation but it can also be the other way around.

Thank you for the advice. However, no matter how dire the consequences might be, I couldn’t bring myself to break in to someone’s house. First, it’s because that most houses where I live are generally well protected due to the obvious reasons so there’s no way a regular person to even get through the first layer of door (people have at least double layers here and at least made from reinforced steel. Same goes for the windows). Second, if you’re a weak person/lone girl and unluckilly break in to some hooligans’ house then expect some unpleasant surprises. I would always prefer the other alternatives any of these days.

My dear, either you have spent every moment of your existence well sheltered from all, including reality, or you are an idiot.
And you do have an undetermined sense of tornado activity.
Firstly, they don’t last very long. To loot after a tornado would only be done where a whole neighborhood has been devastated, and seeing that takes away anyone’s desire to steal whatever little might remain of those people’s lives.

Nobody with a nado on them is thinking feloniously in those moments.
If you had a 1500 pound bull chasing you across a field, you would run, right past a cash register full if hundred dollar bills. You would be too busy saving your life.
If a tornado came along, you, the money, and the bull are fucked. Flat out.
If, somehow, you and the bull find a place to take cover, the bull is going to be too freaked out for himself to worry about you. And when it is over, you will be too stunned to think of hiking the field, picking up loose Benjamins.

Safety. That is the focus.

@Unofficial_Member If you say you could never enter someone else’s home without permission, I accept that as fact. At minimum, I accept it as your belief at this time, but none of us always know how we will act in a given situation. Patty’s example is good, a bull, a bear, a mountain lion, a man with a gun. Tornadoes in the middle of our country devastate areas in minutes. It’s not uncommon for 50 people to die in one direct hit of a community. A tornado 3 is like a hurricane 5, but the tornado pops up from nowhere, and typically the hurricane covers a huge area, sometimes multiple counties for hours, and the death toll most often is extremely low with hurricanes.

To compare someone breaking into my house with leaving children unsupervised is apples and oranges. Young children aren’t supervised because they are committing crimes, it’s because they aren’t responsible yet, they don’t understand consequences well.

Fair enough, regarding the tornado issue. I would still at least hope that the home owner would invite me in instead of me breaking in to their house.

@JLeslie What I meant is that supposed that you carry your children to the park and left them alone unsupervised there while you walk away in to a store trying to buy something else, thinking that you won’t take long and everything would be just fine, and suddenly after 5 minutes your children are gone, they could have been kidnapped by someone else and it will be your fault for not supervising them, people will think you’re at fault since you’re neglecting your responsibility toward your children. The kidnapper is wrong, and so are you for neglecting to protect the children. Perhaps I worded my sentences wrongly in my earlier post. Instead of “children kidnapped” I should’ve written “children got kidnapped”. I hope I didn’t cause any misinterpretation.

^^If people are home in the house then there is no need to break in obviously. We are talking about a desperate situation. No one is answering the door.

Yes, I understand. It is still most likely impossible for me to do that where I live. Like I said, houses here (in cities and good suburbans) generally have very tight security and there’s no way a regular person is skillful enough or have the time and right equipment to successfully break in to someone’s house in such given situation. It suprised me to see that general houses in US don’t have tight security. Only a simple front door that is most likely made from wood, with probably an alarm as a secondary measure. Even the windows are simply glasses and blinds. But who am I to complain? If something happens in the house I couldn’t completely blame the criminals. Oh I forgot, they can legally use gun, no wonder they have such security complacency.

I would say someone trying to save their life by taking shelter isn’t a “criminal.” Just like people crossing the border I wouldn’t call criminals. They are breaking laws, but the word criminal to me implies malicious intent. People break laws every day. Driving faster than the speed limit, jay walking, bartering services once in a while, I’m not going to use such a negative word as criminal for those things.

My house is always locked if I’m not home, and locked 90% of the time when I am home. My screen door (the screen is on the top half of the door so not easy to hop through) has a dead bolt, and I lock my garage door, which many people don’t. Most of my houses had alarm systems, this current one doesn’t. So, I’m from the frame of mind if locking things up too, but there are still parts of our country that have less concern about locking up cars and houses.

@UM, what country do you live in?
I keep my door locked except occasional evenings when there is a nice breeze I want to enjoy. I have never had an alarm in my life, and my life is more than a half century long.
I do, however, have battery operated lights attached to the wall going down to the basement, in case of power outage.
The only break in I ever had was when my daughter left the basement door unlocked, and a very drunk man wandered in. I heard a noise, and I called down for whoever was there to come out. He started up the stairs smiling, and offered me a cigarette. I swung open the door and told him to get out, or I would kill him, and call the police to brag. He got out.

Alright folks, I have decided, it’s time for me to come clean. Some of you have been asking where I live for some time and I have been quite aversive about it. I’ll let you all know now. I live in Indonesia. Guess you’ll probably know who I was now. Don’t worry, I would accept if there’s any hate coming.

I’d break in through a window to save my kid’s life. I’d do a hell of a lot of things I wouldn’t do other wise to save my kids, even murder.

Would they have gotten in trouble with the law??? Probably!!!

Would the homeowner press charges??? I would hope NOT!!! I believe that IF it had been MY home, I would refuse to press charges once that I realized that my home hadn’t been ransacked!!! Then, IF the cops insisted on pressing charges, I’d have gone to court to testify for your son & WHY I felt that there were necessary & very prudent steps taken to protect his family!!!

Having said that, I can’t imagine what it would have been like IF I had come home in the midst of a tornado, go running down to my basement, find an unknown family sitting there. That would have scared the shit out of me!!! Since I don’t believe in keeping a gun in my home, all I could have done was ask them WHY they were there & pray that they were telling the truth!!! On the other hand, this family might have had a gun & chose to shoot first & ask questions later!!!

My final thought… I’d do ANYTHING to protect my family & once that I knew that I could get in with my credit card, me & my family could have easily ended up down in that basement!!! Your son was quite wise to sit out the storm knowing he could reach safety IF necessary. I don’t know IF I could have stayed so rational!!! Had it been my home, he’d have been welcomed which could translate to anything in somebody else home!!!