Opinion ID: 1704613
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: entry of a conveyance

Text: Other cases have also declined to find that facts similar to those herein could be characterized as a burglary. The Fourth District recently considered this issue in Jones v. State, 763 So.2d 1101 (Fla. 4th DCA), review granted, 760 So.2d 948 (Fla. 2000), where the defendant appealed a conviction for burglary based solely upon the removal of hubcaps and lug nuts from the wheels of an automobile. On appeal, the court reversed the burglary conviction, relying on our decision in Von Edwards and the statement therein that the legislative intent is that the removal of a portion of the conveyance must be to facilitate the commission of an offense within the conveyance. Id. at 1102 (quoting Von Edwards, 377 So.2d at 685) (emphasis added). Based on this language from Von Edwards, the Jones court concluded that the removal of a wheel, tire, hubcap, or lug nut, or any combination thereof, from the outside of a conveyance, cannot constitute burglary because [u]nder those circumstances there is no `intent to commit an offense therein,' i.e., within the vehicle. [3] See id. at 1103. The court also noted that Word did not address the requirement discussed by this Court in State v. Stephens, 601 So.2d 1195 (Fla.1992), that the offense must be capable of being committed within the vehicle. See Jones at 1103. Of course, we have already noted the Fifth District's holding in Hankins that the removal of hubcaps alone did not constitute a burglary. In an opinion by Associate Judge Parker Lee McDonald, the Hankins court explained: The gravamen of the offense of burglary, whether of a conveyance or otherwise, is a nonconsensual entry with the intent to commit an offense within; the purpose of the statute is to punish an invasion of the possessory property rights of another in structures and conveyances. The definition of entering a conveyance in Section 810.011(2) does not obviate the necessity for alleging facts in support of an intent to commit an offense therein. 376 So.2d at 286 (citations omitted) (emphasis added). Similarly, in R.E.S. v. State, 396 So.2d 1219 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981), the court held that the sole act of siphoning gasoline from a car was not a burglary. There, the court reasoned that the cases upholding convictions for burglary of automobiles involved entry into a compartment of a vehicle which can be entered wholly or partially by a person. See id. at 1220. [4] On the other hand, a number of Florida cases have considered entry of a conveyance in other contexts and have applied a more expansive meaning to entry. For example, the Second District held in Word that the removal of a tire from a motor vehicle constituted a burglary. Other cases have reached seemingly similar results. See, e.g., Braswell v. State, 671 So.2d 228, 229-30 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996) (holding that reaching into the bed of a pickup truck to remove a secured item within the truck was an entry); Greger v. State, 458 So.2d 858, 860 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984) (holding that the loosening and removal of bolts and nuts from the protruding motor at the stern of the boat constituted an entry for purposes of the burglary statute); State v. Harvey, 403 So.2d 630, 630 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981) (holding that defendant's loosening of the bolts in the engine compartment underneath the car with the intent to remove the alternator was sufficient to constitute an entry); Bragg v. State, 371 So.2d 1082, 1083 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979) (holding it was proper to convict the defendant of burglary for opening the hood of a vehicle with intent to remove the battery). [5]