Trespassing to recover stolen property
<p>Say someone steals my car (or whatever). Am I allowed to trespass to retrieve the car? It shouldn't  be trespassing if I am defending my property. </p>

<p>The other question  implies eg a store grabbing  a shoplifter is illegal, which makes no sense.</p>

<p>No, you are not allowed to break the law (trespassing) to enforce the law. </p>

<p>This boils down to: 'two wrongs don't make a right'. </p>

<p>A law enforcement officer is allowed to enter the property to determine (or to collect the needed information for a prosecuter) if your claim is correct (your car on someone elses property that may have been stolen).</p>

<p>A officer is trained to collect evidence (or secure the area untill someone else does) in a manner acceptable to a court.</p>

<p>The court will consider evidence collected by the law enforcement officials to be <strong>impartial</strong> and therefore it is in your interest (as a person that is envolved in the matter, thus impartial) to have the police deal with this matter properly.</p>

<hr>

<blockquote>
  <p>So what about a bag? If a shoplifter puts an item in their own bag dont you have to violate their property to retrieve it? </p>
</blockquote>

<p>No, this would be a violation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Equality before the law</a> or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Golden Rule</a>:</p>

<ul>
<li><em>Do unto others as you would have them do unto you</em> </li>
</ul>

<p>and is the backbone of <strong>civil code</strong> and <strong>common law</strong> jurasdictions (<em>ius respicit aequitatem</em>) and thus implemented in one form or another. </p>

<p>You must ask yourself the following question:</p>

<ul>
<li>how would you feel, if a compleate stranger came up, grabbed your bag to search for something <strong>they <em>claim</em></strong> belongs to them? </li>
</ul>

<p>Most peaple (including a judge) wouldn't like that at all. </p>

<p>In such cases the police must be called. </p>

<p>In cases of <em>in flagrante delicto</em> a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_arrest" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Citizen's arrest</a> for the <strong>detainment</strong> of the person until the police arrive <em>may</em> be made in most jurisdictions. </p>

<p>Depending on the situation, the police themselfs made need a search warrant. </p>

<p>So the threshold is <em>very high</em> and care must be taken to deal with such situations properly. </p>

<hr>

<p><strong>Sources</strong>:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Equality before the law - Wikipedia</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Golden Rule - Wikipedia</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_arrest" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Citizen's arrest - Wikipedia</a> </li>
</ul>

nevada