re: #45 boxhead

ok… but just for arguments sake, if you find people in your yard and do not know if your home has been burglarized or loved ones within harmed, can you not detain them until backup, police, whatever arrives and sorts things out?

Very, very, very risky. If you’ve got a camera phone then take pictures of them and tell them not to come back, then call the cops. In one of my past jobs we had to evict people from the premises quite frequently, the rule was ask them nicely to leave three times then call the cops.

Note that this is different from the Castle Doctrine or Shopkeepers Privilege, simple outdoors trespass in and of itself is almost never considered a valid reason to detain people against their will.