CASE STUDY WEEK 4
BURGLARY CASE STUDY 1
Facts: On March 24, 2008, at 10:47AM, Deputies were dispatched to respond to a Burglary in progress. When the Deputy arrived at the scene, a 16 year old female and a 10 year old male answered the door and provided the following information to the Deputy.
They reported a green mini van pulled in the driveway of their residence, and a white male wearing a red shirt and dark hat and knocked on the front door of the residence. When no one answered a second male wearing dark clothing, went to the side garage door and attempted to kick it in. When the door would not open the two men left in an unknown direction.
While the Deputy was still at the residence, the next door neighbor had driven by the residence and noticed the green mini van in the driveway and saw a slender male walk up to the front door.
The Deputy left the scene and was patrolling the same area at around 11:30AM that same day when the Deputy passed a green mini van headed northbound while the Deputy was headed southbound. The Deputy turned around and began following the green mini van and ran the license plate. The Deputy made aTerry stop on the vehicle and noticed three people in the van. The back seat passenger put his hands on top of his head, the driver put her hands outside the driver’s window immediately upon being stopped, while the front passenger had to be told to put his hands in plain view. For officer safety all three individuals were ordered outside the van and advised to keep their hands in plain sight. Back up officers arrived and the three were removed from the vehicle.
At the time the individuals were removed from the vehicle, officers noticed several guns on the floor of the vehicle. All three individuals were advised of theirMiranda rights. The vehicle was impounded and photographed. The owner of the vehicle signed a consent to search the vehicle. The vehicle was searched and inventoried.
Items found included the following:
1 pistol
6 Rifles
5 shotguns
Jewelry
Cash
Digital camera
Laptop
Palmcorder
Camera
Camera bag
All three suspects were interviewed and one admitted to burglarizing another residence. Officers discovered a third residence was missing property.
SOME QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
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What happened in this case?
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Who are the parties?
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What facts are important? Unimportant?
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Is any significant information missing?
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Why did the people involved act the way they did?
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What evidence was found and what evidence would you expect to find at the scenes?
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Are there safety considerations here?
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Was the officers’ response appropriate? Why or why not?
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Is there any follow-up needed for the investigation?
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