Larceny Requires an Intent to Steal Something, While Burglary May Not Involve a Theft at All
Video Transcribed: I am Stuart Ericson, I am an attorney in Wagoner. Talking about crimes in Oklahoma, the differences between common ones that are talked about, and some confusion about what some of them really mean. So let’s talk about burglary versus larceny and a little bit of robbery right now.
Burglary doesn’t necessarily mean something was stolen. Somebody will say, “My house got burglarized.” Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean something was stolen.
Burglary means the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another, so you break into somebody’s house by force or open a door and break in when you’re not supposed to, while that building is occupied. So you’re breaking into somebody’s home while they are there in the house.
And the final part of the burglary is with the intent to commit a crime therein. So crime can be anything. It can be you breaking into somebody’s house to try to hit or kick them, committing an assault and battery. Well, that’s first-degree burglary. You could break into somebody’s house to try to steal something, or take personal property from them.
That’s first-degree burglary. Now that’s different than burglary second degree because the second degree is going to be breaking into that dwelling or house or a vehicle where nobody is. So if you break into a house with the intent to commit a crime, but nobody is home, well that’s second-degree burglary.
So first-degree burglary has a minimum sentence of seven years. So that is seven with a maximum of 20 years, and that is a serious crime in Oklahoma because somebody’s at home in the house and the legislature deems that’s a scary event, that’s a violent event.
The most violent way to do it, of course, would be to kick somebody’s door in, break a window, break a sliding door, enter the house, somebody’s home, and you take stuff and rob them. So that’s seven to 20. Second-degree burglary carries a sentence of up to seven years. And of course, that’s a felony as well. It’s a little bit different than larceny crimes, which are the taking of personal property from someone else. It can be by fraud or by stealth, by pickpocketing.
That would be larceny. That’s not a burglary, that’s not a robbery. That would be larceny, just taking property from someone else by fraud or by stealth. So that’s different than burglary. And then of course you have the robbery crimes. Larceny is taking personal property from somebody by fraud or stealth, whereas robbery is taking personal property from somebody by violence, force, or threat.
You are threatening somebody, or for example, you have a gun pointed at them, and you say, “Give me your wallet.” Well, that’s robbery. Whereas a pickpocket who stealthily comes up behind you and takes that wallet and you don’t even know it, well, that’s larceny. So that’s the difference.
And of course, robbery is a very serious crime, a violent crime, an 85% you must serve crime, and that carries a 10 to life. So that’s 10 years minimum, life is the maximum in prison. So all these crimes, people sometimes use different words for them, but of course in Oklahoma law, they have very specific meanings and burglary is different than larceny, which is different than robbery. If you need my help, reach out to wagonerlawyer.com and ask for Stuart Ericson, I am the Wagoner Criminal Defense Attorney.
