CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL LAW: CAN YOU ROB YOURSELF?
The defendants robbed a jewelry store, taking $4.5 million at gunpoint from the employees. The DA's theory was that it was an inside job, with the store owner setting the whole thing up. Hey, it can't be a robbery or even a theft if the owner consents, right?
You guessed it, the Court of Appeal makes up a special rule: even if the owner consents to the taking of property, it's still a robbery if the thieves take the property by force or fear from the custody of employees who are unaware of the consent.
What about Tufunga (21 Cal.4th 935), where the California Supreme Court said that
taking back your property, even by force, isn't a robbery so long as you are trying to take back your actual property, because there's no intent to steal another's property? The Court of Appeal says that Tufunga is inapplicable because this is an "unusual fact situation."
How does that change the fact that the property being taken isn't someone else's? And doesn't
this mean that the OWNER is also guilty of aiding the robbery? Of his own property?
People v. Smith; 2009 DJ DAR 14323; DJ, 10/1/09; C/A 1st
