Under G.S. 14-56, it is a Class I felony to "break[] or enter[] any . . . motor vehicle . . . containing any . . . thing of value" with the intent to commit larceny or any felony. It sounds straightforward enough, but I was recently asked whether breaking into a toolbox affixed behind the cab of a pickup truck violates the statute. That led me to several other interesting issues, and my interlocutor was kind enough to permit me to summarize my research here. (She granted me a waiver of my own policy of not blogging about individual questions.) Let's start with some easy scenarios and then move to the tougher ones. 1. Obviously, breaking into the passenger compartment of a car violates the statute. 2. What about breaking into the trunk? This is included, too. The court of appeals considered the scope of the statute in State v. Nealy, 64 N.C. App. 663 (1983). Even the dissenting judge, who took the narrowest view of the statute, opined that it "proscribe[s] the breaking or entering of compartments of a motor vehicle in which property is customarily carried, i.e., the passenger compartment and the trunk area.” 3. How about the engine compartment? No property is usually carried there, so does a person commit breaking or entering a motor vehicle if he pops the hood with the necessary criminal intent? Yes. Although the dissenting judge in Nealy wouldn't have gone so far, the majority upheld the defendant's conviction based on reaching [...]
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