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Needless to say, Kevin
intentionally caused quite a bit
of bodily harm to both
Harry and Marv, for example.
(shoe squeaks)
(yells)
(playful music)
- Hello.
(gun fires)
(yelling)
- You could argue that Kevin McCallister
is a criminal mastermind up there with
Jigsaw and Martha Stewart.
- Keep the change, you filthy animal.
(dramatic music)
(upbeat music)
Hey Legal Eagles and
welcome back to Laws Broken,
where an attorney destroys your favorite
childhood movies by showing
you how illegal everything is,
because everything is illegal.
Now I'm sure most of
you have seen Home Alone
at one time or another.
You know, it's the
heartwarming holiday movie
where Macaulay Culkin
AKA Kevin McCallister
gets left behind by his 25-person family
right before Christmas
and then has to fight off
a pair of criminals who are
determined to rob his house
and kill him, you know, the typical
heartwarming family Christmas movie.
Or at the very least, Kids Die Hard.
Now obviously, Harry and Marv,
AKA the Wet Bandits are criminals.
We'll go into great detail
about their criminal exploits,
but is it possible that other characters
may be far more sinister
than the Wet Bandits?
Is it possible that Harry and
Marv simply had the misfortune
to stumble upon a nefarious
criminal enterprise
already in progress?
Well let's start by examining perhaps
the true criminals of this holiday movie,
the worst parents in the world,
Mr. and Mrs. McCallister.
- Kevin!
- Now as we all know, the power goes out
at the McCallister
residence the night before
they're scheduled for an
international flight to Paris,
and when they wake up in the morning,
they rush to get to the
plane with only 45 minutes
before their plane takes
off, and once on the plane,
Kevin's mom famously says.
- Hope we didn't forget anything.
- Unfortunately, Kevin's parents
have left him home alone.
- I made my family disappear.
- No, Kevin didn't make
his parents disappear,
they abandoned him.
- What kind of mother am I?
- If it makes you feel any better,
I forgot my reading glasses.
- And I'm sure many of you
feel for the McCallisters
and realize it's not
that easy to keep track
of so many kids, but in reality,
both Mr. and Mrs. McCallister
could be found guilty
of either child abandonment
or child endangerment.
A person commits child
abandonment when he or she
as a parent, guardian,
or other person having
physical custody or control of a child
without regard for the
mental or physical health,
safety, or welfare of that child,
knowingly leaves that child
who is under the age of 13
without supervision by
a responsible person
over the age of 14 for a
period of 24 hours or more.
Now here, Kevin is a mere eight years old,
five years younger than the minimum age
under the child abandonment
statute, and is left alone
all by himself without
any kind of supervision.
- Guys, I'm eating junk
and watching rubbish,
you better come out and stop me.
- Now I'm sure the
McCallisters would argue that
they didn't knowingly
leave Kevin all alone,
it was just a horrible mistake.
- Did you count heads?
- 11 including me, five boys, six girls,
four parents, two drivers, and
a partridge in a pear tree.
- Now unfortunately for the McCallisters,
getting stuck on the plane
and eventually the airport
in Paris doesn't necessarily
help them all that much.
It might drop the charge
down from child abandonment
to just simply negligent parenting,
but the bottom line is
that Kevin was probably
home alone for multiple days
without any supervision.
Such abandonment could amount to
a class four felony in Illinois.
I mean, Kevin is a small
child who can't even
pack his own suitcase.
- He's what the French call
(speaking in foreign language).
- And what's worse is
Kevin's parent could also be
found guilty of child endangerment
for leaving him all alone.
In Illinois, a person who
causes or permits a child
to be placed in a
situation which endangers
the child's life or health could be
guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
So maybe next time, the
McCallisters should keep track
of where their children are, or, ya know,
set multiple alarms so they're
not late for their flight.
And by the way, stick around
until the end of this video
where I give a verdict
for how long everyone,
including Kevin's parents,
are going to jail.
But that takes us to the most traditional
criminal wrongdoers in this whole affair,
the so-called Wet Bandits
themselves, Harry and Marv.
- Crowbars up.
(bars clink)
- Now of course, Harry
starts off the movie strong
by dressing up like a police officer.
Quite clearly, Harry is
impersonating a police officer
to get some inside intel on the
McCallisters' holiday plans.
That is that they'll be out
of town during the holidays,
leaving the perfect opportunity
for a career burglar
to break in and take whatever
the McCallisters have.
- You're taking a trip to Paris?
- Yes, we have to leave tomorrow morning.
- Excellent.
- Now, the McCallisters
live in Winnetka, Illinois,
and Illinois, as in any other jurisdiction
in the United States,
it is completely illegal
to impersonate a police officer.
In Illinois, this
particular criminal offense
is called False Personation.
It can get you up to
three years in prison,
among other sentences, so think about that
next time you and your friends decide to
dress up as the fuzz for Halloween.
- That's a good idea.
- So now with all of this
fraudulently acquired
information about when all the neighbors
are going to leave town,
Harry and Marv sit down
and conveniently conspire
to commit burglary,
criminal trespass, and grand larceny.
- Check it out, all the
houses with nobody home
have automatic timers on their lights,
and I got it all figured out, watch this.
Now.
- Because Marv has entered
into a conspiracy with Harry,
he's now on the hook for all of the crimes
that Harry has committed in
furtherance of this conspiracy,
so that means Marv is also now on the hook
for criminal personation.
As part of that criminal conspiracy,
Harry and Marv attempt to
burgle the McCallister house,
but are only thwarted at the last minute
when they get spooked by Kevin.
- Get the hell out of here.
One, two, 10.
(firecrackers popping)
- And although Harry
and Marv are temporarily
dissuaded from robbing
the McCallister house,
they lick their wounds and
simply drive down the road
to then burgle some other
neighbor's house instead.
Clearly another example of grand larceny,
but because they are the
eponymous Wet Bandits,
they can't help themselves
but clog up the sinks
in the house to cause wanton
destruction of property.
So again, even though it's only Marv
that is committing this felonious act,
both of them are on the hook
for intentional destruction of property.
These people won't be back for days,
and the Wet Bandits have struck,
leaving their house in shambles.
Now in between their various burglaries,
the two could probably also
be convicted of stalking.
In Illinois, if someone
simply engages in a course
of conduct which they know
would cause the target
or person to fear for their safety,
they may be guilty of stalking,
and here Harry and Marv are
driving around the neighborhood
in the creepy work van following
little Kevin McCallister
in probably such a way
that would cause him
to fear for his safety.
(tires squeal)
(Kevin screams)
And finally, after
Harry and Marv's attempt
to burgle the McCallisters as
Kevin gets the best of them,
they attempt to serious maim or kill Kevin
for all of his traps.
(dramatic music)
- Hiya pal.
We outsmarted you this time.
- But luckily, they get bashed in the head
by a kid old man.
(shovel bangs)
(groans)
Wait.
Now given the severity of what Harry says
he's going to do to Kevin.
- What are we gonna do to him, Harry?
- Do exactly what he did to us.
Gonna burn his head with a blow torch.
- And given that he is in
the heat of the moment,
this is probably attempted
second degree murder.
But now let's talk
about how Harry and Marv
found themselves in this situation.
Let's talk about the criminal liability
of little Kevin McCallister,
AKA the Puppet Master.
(dramatic music)
(gun cocks)
Like most criminals,
Kevin starts off small.
He starts off the movie by
assaulting his older brother Buzz
simply for some harmless taunting.
- Did anyone order me a plain cheese?
- Oh yeah we did, but if you want any,
somebody's gonna have to barf it all up.
(yelling)
- Then having acquired a taste for blood,
Kevin moves on to the wanton destruction
of Buzz's property and theft.
(playful music)
(shelf clatters)
(Kevin yells)
Now arguably this wasn't
done intentionally,
so perhaps the destruction
of property gets knocked down
to simply negligent
destruction of property,
but he's very clearly stealing
from his older brother.
- [Kevin] All right, Buzz's life savings.
- And to add insult to injury,
the heartless (bleep) then
taunts Buzz's girlfriend.
- Buzz, your girlfriend, woof.
- Now having been
emboldened by petty theft,
Kevin moves on to some public shoplifting.
- [Clerk] Wait son, you have
to pay for that toothbrush.
Son, son, hey!
- And while Kevin seems like the victim
in this situation, I assure you he is not.
- Shoplifter!
(gasps)
(tense music)
- And although Kevin didn't quite intend
to take the toothbrush when
he ran out of the store,
one could argue that he's
guilty of what's called
retail theft under Illinois law
because he knowingly
carried the toothbrush
away from him and away from the store.
- I'm a criminal.
- But all of those offenses were simply
baby town frolics and
preparation for the main event.
Can Kevin McCallister really create
a nightmare house of booby traps
to punish Harry and Marv for the
attempts to burgle his own house?
Well, in Illinois, in the
absence of any defenses,
one is guilty of battery
and probably assault as well
if they cause bodily
harm to an individual.
Needless to say, Kevin
intentionally caused quite a bit
of bodily harm to both
Harry and Marv, for example.
(shoe squeaks)
(yelling)
(glass shatters)
(yelling)
(iron bangs)
(grunts)
(skin sizzles)
(yelling)
You could argue that Kevin McCallister
is a criminal mastermind up there with
Jigsaw and Martha Stewart.
- Look what you did, you little jerk.
- I'm sorry.
- Now if convicted of
battery, Kevin could receive
up to a year in jail for each attempt,
though that sentence
would probably be modified
since he's a juvenile who wouldn't likely
be tried as an adult.
Though the complexity of these death traps
does evidence an adult-like temperament
if not straight-up psychosis.
- You guys give up or
you thirsty for more?
- However, thankfully for Kevin,
Illinois statutes allow
for both self-defense
and defense of the home.
That means that in certain cases,
one can use physical
force to defend themselves
against another or to
defend their property.
So long as Kevin reasonably believes
that force was necessary to defend himself
and his gigantic family's home,
he could get off scot free.
Though I think everyone knows that
the better course of action
is simply call the police
instead of rigging your
house with death traps.
- Marv.
- Harry?
- Why the hell did you
take your shoes off?
- Why the hell are you
dressed like a chicken?
- Now the defense of self
defense and defense of property
generally applies to the non-deadly traps,
but does it apply to everything?
(rock music)
Of course, we love to talk
about the use of deadly force
on this channel, here most
of the traps in question
are arguably not inherently deadly.
(fan whirs)
But some of those traps
are as deadly as they get.
I mean, those paint cans
could crush your skull.
- Heads up!
(grunts)
(yells)
- And that's a flamethrower.
(yelling)
So generally speaking, a person can use
non-deadly force against another
when he or she reasonably
believes that is necessary
to prevent or terminate
another's unlawful entry
into or attack onto a dwelling.
Now under Illinois law,
a person can only use
deadly force if an entry
to the house is made
in a violent, riotous,
or tumultuous manner,
and there is a reasonable belief
that the force is necessary
to prevent an assault or personal violence
against the victor or
another in the dwelling,
or if the person reasonably
believes the force
is necessary to prevent a
felony from being committed.
So this that standard met?
Well, Marv and Harry enter multiple times,
sometimes quietly.
(tapping)
- We know that you're in there,
and that you're all alone.
- Sometimes in ways
that might be considered
violent, riotous, or tumultuous.
(dramatic music)
(clattering)
- Where are you, you little creep?
- And by the way, if you
want to know what happened
in the real-life case of
when someone rigged up
a shotgun booby trap in their own house,
check out the link in the description
to the animated true crime
video that I just did
about the case of the shotgun booby trap.
The link is in the description.
So we know that the first
element for use of deadly force
is probably met under these circumstances,
but when you're talking about
entering into the house,
a few of you real legal eagles out there
are probably thinking
about the duty to retreat,
because at common law,
you can't use deadly force
if you have the ability to retreat safely.
And some states have
passed so-called castle
or stand your ground laws that
reverse the common law rule
and allow you to use deadly force
whether you can safely
retreat or not, and Illinois,
as it happens, doesn't have
a stand your ground law,
but it does have a castle law.
So to the extent that
Kevin is using deadly force
in self defense in his own home,
he does not have a duty to retreat
and he can use deadly
force in self defense.
- Keep the change, you filthy animal.
- But that complicates things because
Kevin eventually leaves his own house,
and so having retreated from his home,
he can no longer use deadly
force to defend himself,
because he can retreat safely.
So cutting Harry and Marv
down is arguably battery,
if not attempted murder,
given how high they are up in the air.
- Hey guys, check this out.
(yelling)
- The little psychopath
has really grown up.
- Keep the change, you filthy animal.
- Now before we tally
up all the sentences,
let's spend a moment to
examine the little crimes
that are just too small to go
into any particular detail,
like the pizza boy's
destruction of property
and reckless driving.
(statue clatters)
Uncle Frank's casual theft.
- That's real, that's
real crystal, that's real.
Put them in your purse.
- Frank!
- Put them, put them, put them.
- We can't do that.
- Put them in your purse.
- And use of illegal fireworks indoors.
- [Kevin] Cool, firecrackers,
I'll save these for later.
(firecrackers banging)
- But all right, it's time for a verdict.
Let's tally up the crimes.
(rock music)
So let's start with Kevin's parents,
Mr. and Mrs. McCallister.
They are accused of
felony child abandonment
and child endangerment.
- I hope you don't mean that.
Kevin!
- That carries with it a
maximum sentence of six years
in prison, but given the
mitigating circumstances,
the first time offense,
and the fact that Kevin
lived the life of luxury
when he wasn't abandoned,
they'd probably get a year of probation,
and I think that we can
assume that Peter McCallister
would hire a really good lawyer
because he appears to
be incredibly wealthy.
- Am I under arrest or something?
- That brings us to Harry and Marv.
They're accused of dozens of burglaries,
as proven by their Wet
Bandit calling card.
- Nice move, always
leaving the water running.
Now we know each and every
house that you've hit.
- Each one carries with it a maximum
of seven years in prison.
In total, they'd probably look at
five to 10 years in
jail for the burglaries.
Then they'd get six years in jail
for impersonating a police officer,
then for the attempted
homicide of Kevin McCallister,
or at least the aggravated
battery of a minor,
tack on another 10 years.
Finally that takes us to
the puppet master himself,
Kevin McCallister.
His shoplifting would be pleaded down
to a misdemeanor at most.
Now attempted homicide
would normally carry
at least a five-to-10-year penalty
under these circumstances,
but no jury would ever convict
an eight-year-old of living
out a revenge fantasy
in the suburbs of Illinois,
so the puppet master goes
free to maim and kill again.
- Did I burn down the joint?
I don't think so.
(yelling)
- While Kevin created
a fun house of horrors
for Harry and Marv, my
friends and I were busy
building a playground
for YouTube creators.
In fact, if you liked this episode,
I posted all of my bloopers exclusively
on our own streaming platform.
(popping)
It's called Nebula, and we are thrilled
to be partnering with CuriosityStream.
We built Nebula as a place where creators
don't need to worry about demonetization
or the dreaded algorithm.
I fact, I wouldn't be
surprised if I got demonetized
for showing scenes from a PG movie.
Won't someone please
think of the children?
- Hello.
(gun fires)
- Because it's hard out
there being a creator.
Nebula is a place where creators can do
what they do best, create.
It's a place where we can
both house our content ad-free
and also experiment
with new original series
that probably wouldn't work on YouTube
because of the algorithm.
For less than 20 cents
per day, or $20 a year,
you can help a struggling YouTuber,
link in the description.
Okay enough of that.
When I saw that Nebula is
built by creators for creators,
I really mean it.
Nebula features lots of
YouTube's top educational-ish
creators like Real Engineering,
Half As Interesting,
TierZoo, Knowing Better, Real
Life Lore and tons of others.
We also get to collaborate in ways that
probably wouldn't work
on YouTube, for example,
the Nebula exclusive series
called Working Titles
where every episode a
different creator breaks down
their favorite TV intro sequence.
Polyphonic did Game of Thrones,
me and Mulder did Battlestar Galactica,
and I'll be covering Law
& Order very, very soon.
(gavel bangs)
Seriously, we worked really hard on this
and we're really proud of the results.
The project is self-funded,
we're not backed by investors,
and we manage to make all of this ad free
with no dreaded algorithm.
- And there's plenty more
where that came from.
- So what does this have
to do with CuriosityStream?
Well they love educational
content and educational creators,
so they are a perfect partner for Nebula.
We just recently worked out a deal where
if you sign up for CuriosityStream
with the link in the description,
not only will you get
a one month free trial
for CuriosityStream, but you'll also get
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And to be clear, that Nebula
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which means that for less than $20 a year,
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Just go to CuriosityStream.com/LegalEagle.
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So do you agree with my verdict?
Leave your objections in the comments,
and check out how many laws were broken
in your other favorite
movies like Jurassic Park
and The Dark Knight over
here in this playlist,
where I'll see you in court.
