Your thoughts

[dyabolical]

My first reaction would be to dial 911, hit speaker phone, and then nab as many pictures/video as i can with my hd capable phone.

 

[Doc Holiday]

If they ended up robbing your friend then of course it is a valid self-defense situation. If they see you and run away, then no, it isn't.

An additional thought: Convenience store parking lots after midnight = higher risk of altercations. In the wrong part of town they are more like warzones.

 

[EFsDad]

I would tell "your friend" to never park on the side of Quicktrip at midnight. Park in the front or the back where he can see his vehicle while in the building. Also, tell "your friend" lock your damn truck. It's midnight and you are leaving your truck unlocked and where you (I mean your friend) can't see it???

 

[O4L]

When they proceeded to come twords you, (instead of fleeing the scene)

2 guys getting out of MY car to come rob me? I would be in fear of my life. Period.

^^This.

If they are robbing you personally, I would say it is definitely an "I feared for my life" situation.

 

[Stephen Cue]

I would tell "your friend" to never park on the side of Quicktrip at midnight. Park in the front or the back where he can see his vehicle while in the building. Also, tell "your friend" lock your damn truck. It's midnight and you are leaving your truck unlocked and where you (I mean your friend) can't see it???

!

 

[Sam Shoun]

I think it's healthy to consider such scenarios and how they should be handled, but I believe it is better to orient the questions less like "can you shoot someone for xyz...?" and more like "what is the most efficient path to my and my family's survival?"

The latter consideration will guide most away from walking into any confrontation with two potentially armed and/or dangerous unknowns. Further consideration might encourage more successful efforts to prevent finding oneself in this situation to begin with, including simple things like not parking on the side of QT in the middle of the night, not leaving high theft items in the vehicle (especially firearms), etc.

Of course, things happen--trips to the store for medicine in the middle of the night, etc. In the event one finds oneself in this situation, and feels the absolute necessity to intervene, I would suggest that some noise and light (man, I love Surefire) drawing attention might send the bad guys immediately running. This can be done from 20 yards and requires little interaction, and enables a better description of the unknowns for police. If they react aggressively, then you have a managing unknown contacts situation which may turn violent.

But again, I place a higher priority on precluding the encounter and the necessity to intervene.

 

[Lurker66]

These are the scenarios that everyone who carries a weapon for self-defense should think about... a lot.

It's not justifiable to use lethal force if you see someone breaking into your car - so you can't go jumping into a situation like that guns-ablazing. There is, however, nothing wrong with shouting at the thieves to "get away from my car" because at that point you don't know that they're armed or mean you any harm.

It's also highly advisable to call 911 on your cell-phone if you have time (you always want to be the one who called 911 - never the guy that someone else called 911 and identified as "a shooter").

This could end several ways and you have to be prepared for all of the possible outcomes.

Here's a few:

1. If they take off running, you cannot pursue if you're carrying a weapon... No matter what your adrenalin or instincts tell you, pursuing is no longer defending your life and if you have a loaded handgun with you, you're now looking to punish someone for their crimes (or start a fight - one that you now have a very unfair advantage in). Neither of those actions are covered by the law.

2. If they come at you... well, now you're faced with a situation that is uncertain. They might mean you physical harm, and they might just mean to rob you without harming you, but not knowing, I would draw my weapon and start yelling to get back or something like that. If they don't, then it's time to defend yourself in my view. If they do retreat then - again, you cannot pursue (especially if you have your gun drawn). You don't want to for your own protection (nearby police do not automatically know who the good guys are from the bad guys and an adrenalin-pumped guy chasing someone with a gun is rarely a sign that he's the good guy). Even if the police are nowhere around, once you begin pursuing the bad-guys, you just stepped outside the coverage of Stand-your-ground/Castle-Doctrine and you're playing with fire in an attempt to be a vigilante (go ahead and count the media, the prosecutor, and district attorney against you - they do not want vigilantes running around a city and for good reason).

3. What if they just keep on robbing your truck and ignore your request for them to leave? That's probably the toughest scenario of all. You can't shoot people for stealing your stuff if your life isn't in danger (the punishment for theft is not death in any state in the US), and if you draw and try to intimidate them into leaving your vehicle alone, you're now in a funny legal-territory because two wrongs don't make a right (again, you just stepped outside the protection of Stand-your-ground/Castle laws because nobody's life wasn't in immediate danger).

In this case, I'd probably just stand by and call 911. I've got no stuff that's worth loosing my life over and I'm not trained to detain someone like the police are. Sure, citizens can make an arrest, but we're not legally authorized to do so at gunpoint and most aren't trained to detain someone properly (and look at how difficult it is for police to do so when a suspect is resisting - that often leads to lawsuits, so you can guess that it wouldn't end well for a non-LEO citizen).

Use your head - we've got enough hot-headed blow-hards with their CCW permit (that are looking to use their gun as an extension of their ego) out there. Those aren't "the good guys" in my opinion. Don't get me wrong - in a high-stress situation it's easy to screw up and most of us will likely do so, but to go headlong into a situation with little or no training and proceed to run on adrenalin or anger is a recipe for disaster.

Just be careful. There are plenty of stories in the news about something like this going good or bad for the CCW'er. Look at the details of the cases and learn from past mistakes.

my issue is with #3 if you confront them and they dont leave your car, you have every right to take posession of your truck. Im sure if you shoved the bad guys out of the way to enter your vehicle, things would escalate.

But i dont see 2 wrongs. I see 2 guys that are violating my rights and damaging my property. If anything escalates its on the bad guys.

 

[TheRealGman]

Stop you thugs, drop that gun in your hand or I will ......... I think EZ Bake is right on. You ask them to stop, if they run off, then good for you, if they come at you, then you may defend yourself, and if they keep breaking into your car, call 911 and do your best job remembering their descriptions. Also pull out your phone and video tape them. Use the phone, not the gun.

 

[HMFIC]

I had a couple of little snot-nosed punks shoot at the back of my parked vehicle with a paintball gun when I was walking out of QT late one night.

It's a good thing I recognized it as a paintball gun. It's also a good thing that they took off immediately.

 

[uniquediversity]

you said in #2 that if they came at you and you didn't know if they mean you harm to "draw my weapon and yell Get back or something like that"

you cant pull weapon and use as an intimidation tool. as i understand the law its that if you pull your weapon you pull the trigger. its not an intimidation tool.