I learned today that burglary does not necessarily imply theft. It’s one of those things that I had assumed from when I was a child (see: Hamburglar).

Well, as it turns out, burglary is just the act of illegally entering with the intent to commit some crime.

Come to think of it, I kind of already knew the difference. What would you yell if you are awakend in the night by an intruder? “Ack, burglar!” But what if you were to come home to catch someone fleeing from your house? “Stop, thief!”

The fact that burlary requires the combination of the intent to commit any other felony brings to mind some interesting combinations that have nothing to do with theft:

• Burglary + Treason … Break into a Kinko’s at night in order to use their fax machine to send nuclear weapons plans to the Iranians.

or…

• Burglary + Obstruction of Justice … Two witnesses meet in an abandoned warehouse to corroborate testimony over improper firings of US Attorneys

or…

• Burglary + Violating the Engangered Species Act … While running away Fish and Wildlife agents, break the window of a parked car and discard the sea turtle eggs which you have heen carrying