A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed; A Pregnant Woman In Need May Be Trying To Rob You

You know, I, like many people, would like to think that people in general are born to be naturally kind and compassionate.  That when people see a wrong occurring, they’ll feel inherently inclined to want to “do the right thing” or at the very least recognize the injustice in a situation and wish for it to end.  Yes, I know that I’m sounding very preachy at the moment, but it my blog post and I can do what I want, so nah nah nah nah nah nah…

Anyway, I do have a point to all this.  You see, the problem with being so naturally nice is that not everyone shares that trait.  They may be born with it, but due to various circumstances and events, they’ve learned to become less-than-stellar people.  This presents a situation in which those who are sympathetic to the plight of others will often get the wool pulled over their eyes as they blindly help those they perceive to be in need, only to be taken advantage of by the aforementioned less-than-stellar people.

Case in point, if a pregnant woman came knocking on your door and asked if she could use your phone to get help because her car broke down, you’d probably let her in, right?  No!?  You monster, she’s a stranded woman carrying a child!!  So now would you her in?  Good.  Hey, she just robbed you.  See, as an angry misanthrope I know better than to fall for the old I’m-pregnant-and-my-car-broke-down-please-let-me-use-your-phone scam.  Psshtshah… oldest trick in the book…

Seriously though, it seems as if the state of Kansas was going through a miniature crime spree allegedly perpetrated by the woman who is ACTUALLY pregnant (surprising, I know).  She’s estimated to be in about her eighth month of pregnancy and is suspected in pulling this scam in at least three cities across Kansas.  But don’t worry if you live in Kansas; she’s already been taken into custody.  This story really makes you wonder who you can actually trust nowadays if even pregnant women are robbing people.

Anyway, this case brings to mind an interesting legal principle called the law of necessity.  Basically it allows people to avoid criminally liability if they commit a crime in order to prevent some greater harm.  Generally it’s used in criminal cases.  An example would be when a person steals a car in order to run away from someone trying to kill them.  But it gets really interesting in civil cases where it can be employed as a defense against a civil lawsuit.

In the pregnant woman’s case, she may try to argue first that the theft she was arrested for was not connected to the previous similar robberies.  At which point, if the court believed her, she could try and argue that she was merely stealing money from the person who let her in their home because she had some sort of medical emergency related to her pregnancy.

Sound good, right?  Maybe, but it probably wouldn’t work since there didn’t seem to be any medical emergency involved with her pregnancy (the article doesn’t mention anything) and the law of necessity still requires that you pay back the money/property that you’ve taken.

The bigger problem, however, is still proving that your emergency was of greater importance to necessitate your crime, which, in my opinion, makes employing a necessity defense very difficult.  As the old saying goes, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time…