Sentence Reduced on Appeal

Imagine, fast asleep in your own home in a rural area of Alberta, when a sound awakes you.  You rise to look out your bedroom window and see below three men at close range.  Close enough to recognize them as locals.  And what they're doing is taking off with your ATV.  You take exception to this and emerge from the house, scaring them off.  One of them, though, drives off with the ATV, and you decide to follow in your car.  You manage to catch up and force the ATV into a ditch.  And you spray the thief with light birdshot.


You're used to looking after yourself.  You like living where you do.  You're independent-minded, and a beacon in your community.  You work hard and you also volunteer as a fire-fighter and first-responder.  You've got a wife and three small children.  And you value all that you have made of your life.  You also value items that you own that you worked hard to obtain.  And it disgusts you that there are thugs in the area that don't work, but do prey on their neighbours.


The thief you shot wasn't injured.  He was sentenced to spend 30 days in prison.  His activities well enough known to local law enforcement authorities.  You, though, defending your family and your property, were convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, and ordered to spend 90 days in prison, on weekends.  You appealed the sentence and the Alberta Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, but reduced the sentence to community service and probation.  You'll have a criminal record.


As a part-time farmer, chemical plant worker, and neighbourly volunteer, you've always been busy.  You're going to be busier than ever until you've completed your community service.  Because you're going to be so busy you'll have to give up your sports volunteering for a while.  You'll also have to be resigned to the fact that with a criminal record you can no longer travel to the States for incident command class and firefighting at A&M College.


You'll still be acting as an incident commander involved in search and rescue and firefighting on the local emergency response team.  It'll just be a little complicated until you may be able, after five years have elapsed, have your criminal record expunged.  And it's given you second, sobering thought, hasn't it, the court comment, that you should have let the thief just take the ATV.  "That's what insurance is for, you should have just let him have it", they said in court.


Went against the grain, didn't it?  Not your idea of personal, let alone public responsibility, to let those punks get off with your hard-earned and insured belongings.  Even if the insurance would have let you recover the cost, that's the way insurance premiums go up, isn't it?  Just didn't seem the responsible thing to do, just to turn over and go back to sleep and let them get on with their thieving enterprise, did it?


And doesn't it gall you when you keep running into the guy who was convicted of theft and served 30 days in jail as a result.  Since he lives within a 12 mile radius of your place.  He and his pals are shiftless slugs.  You've got a dependent family, wife and three young kids.  Now you're concerned for their safety where you never really were, before.  Now you've had a security system installed at the new house you've had to move to.


Just think: if you'd injured the thief you might have lost everything; your wife, your job, your kids.  You'd be in prison, because someone decided to steal your things and you decided you wouldn't let them.