Court Opinion

ID: 9565682
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:25:41.245674+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:49.555654
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
The majority misread the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and article I, section 13, of the California Constitution. Since their adoption both have clearly provided that the warrant—not the victims of the crime—must “particularly describe” the place to be searched and the “things to be seized.” Neither Constitution authorizes the guileful evasion devised here, in which the police used the warrant *80merely to gain admission to the premises and the victims marched in with them to select the property to be seized.
The facts of the case graphically illustrate the vice of this technique. The warrant issued by the magistrate to Sergeant Riddell described 60 items of personal property allegedly located in defendant’s house. The police did not find a single one of those 60 items. Instead, as the majority quote, Sergeant Riddell testified that he and the victims “[w]ent from room to room . . . looking through drawers and closet space . ...” In this process “Each and every item was looked at,” every room of the house was searched, “thousands” of articles were scrutinized, and more than 80 pieces of personal property were seized—not one of which had been described in the warrant.
Contrary to the claim of the majority, this is manifestly a general exploratory search of the very type the warrant clause of the Constitution was designed to outlaw. (See Aday v. Superior Court (1961) 55 Cal.2d 789, 795-796 [13 Cal.Rptr. 415, 362 P.2d 47], and cases cited.) It also violates the statutory requirement of particularity in the warrant. (Pen. Code, §§ 1525, 1529.) And by the same token the remedy is proper: the Legislature has expressly authorized a motion to suppress when, as here, the police act under color of legal process but “the property or evidence obtained is not that described in the warrant” (Pen. Code, § 1538.5, subd. (a)(2)(h)).
In a vain attempt at justification the majority invoke the variation on the “plain sight” exception that we formulated in Skelton v. Superior Court (1969) 1 Cal.3d 144, 157 [81 Cal.Rptr. 613, 460 P.2d 485], i.e., “When officers, in the course of a bona fide effort to execute a valid search warrant, discover articles which, although not included in the warrant are reasonably identifiable as contraband, they may seize them whether they are initially in plain sight or come into plain sight subsequently, as a result of the officers’ efforts.” (Italics added.) The reliance is misplaced for at least two reasons.
As with each of the few permissible excuses for noncompliance with the warrant rule (see, e.g., Katz v. United States (1967) 389 U.S. 347, 357 [19 L.Ed.2d 576, 585, 88 S.Ct. 507]; People v. Smith (1972) 7 Cal.3d 282, 286 [101 Cal.Rptr. 893, 496 P.2d 1261]), the Skelton exception is narrowly circumscribed and the burden is on the People to demonstrate compliance with each precondition to its applicability. (People v. Murray (1978) 77 Cal.App.3d 305, 310-311 [143 Cal.Rptr. 502].) As the empha*81sized language indicates, the Skelton exception is inapplicable unless the unlisted articles that the police propose to seize are (1) discovered in a “bona fide effort” to execute the warrant and are (2) “reasonably identifiable as contraband.” Neither condition is satisfied here.1 Yet the restrictions are essential to protect the warrant process against abuse and to prevent indiscriminate seizure of property in the unfettered discretion of the police. (Marron v. United States (1927) 275 U.S. 192, 196 [72 L.Ed. 231, 237, 48 S.Ct. 74]; People v. Hill (1974) 12 Cal.3d 731, 762 [117 Cal.Rptr. 393, 528 P.2d 1], overruled on other grounds in People v. DeVaughn (1977) 18 Cal.3d 889, 896 [135 Cal.Rptr. 786, 558 P.2d 872].)
The requirement of a “bona fide effort” to execute the warrant is explicated in Skelton itself. Reviewing the record of that case, we found an “absence of any substantial evidence as to the officers’ motivation” in seizing property not specified in the warrant; we illustrated the point by noting, “it does not appear for example that they deliberately delayed looking for or discovering the items listed in the warrant” (1 Cal.3d at p. 158, fn. 12). By contrast, in the case at bar there was not only such a deliberate delay in looking for the listed items—the police never even began to do so. As will appear, the record negates any possible claim of bona fides.
Thus Sergeant Riddell repeatedly admitted on cross-examination that he made no effort to look for the 60 articles described in the warrant; rather than consulting that list as he entered each room of defendant’s house, he simply took every item of personal property in the room and asked Mr. and Mrs. Lane, the burglary victims, if it was theirs.2 In her testimony Mrs. Lane confirmed this fact, and added that she did not see the warrant at any time during the search; apparently it remained in Officer Riddell’s pocket throughout the entire proceedings. Nor was the incompleteness of the stolen property list in the warrant an oversight: Mrs. Lane identified in court a number of articles seized by the police that she had known were stolen but had not specified in her affidavit for the warrant; she testified without contradiction that she had left them out because the police had advised they had a “sufficient inventory” to procure a warrant and she need not tell them of “all the items” to be seized.3
*82The Constitution commands, however, that the warrant specify the “things to be seized”—not merely “enough of the seizable things to persuade the magistrate to allow the police to enter and search for more.” Yet that is essentially what happened here. Although Sergeant Riddell went through the motions of obtaining a warrant, his ensuing actions prove that he intended to use it simply as a license to get inside defendant’s house; having done so, he admittedly ignored the list of property specified in the warrant, searched every nook and cranny of the premises, and seized every article selected for him by the Lanes. In other words, after he had gained entry into the premises the officer was obviously no more interested in the warrant than a theatergoer is concerned with his ticket once he has been seated. No court in the land should countenance a scheme that reduces the high office of a search warrant to the level of a mere ticket of admission. Certainly on this record it cannot be said that the bona tides requirement described in Skelton has been met. As we recognized in that decision (1 Cal.3d at pp. 154-155, fn. 8), “Just as an arrest may not be used as a pretext to conduct a general search of a person’s premises for incriminating evidence (see People v. Roberts (1956) 47 Cal.2d 374, 378 [303 P.2d 721]), where the right to conduct a search is obtained ostensibly for one purpose, it may not be used in reality for another.” Indeed, “It is by this rational limitation that the Fourth Amendment protects the individual against unfettered discretion.” (People v. Hill (1974) supra, 12 Cal.3d at p. 762.)
A recent decision of the United States Supreme Court is in point. (Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York (1979) 442 U.S. 319 [60 L.Ed.2d 920, 99 S.Ct. 2319].) There a police investigator purchased two reels of film from an “adult” bookstore; after viewing them, the local town justice concluded they were obscene. The investigator asserted in an affidavit that additional “similar” material could be found on the premises, and *83the justice issued a warrant for the search of the store. The only “things to be seized” described in the warrant, nevertheless, were the two reels of film previously purchased; the affiant requested the justice to accompany him to the store in order to determine which additional materials should be seized. Pursuant to that request, the justice entered the store with a group of police officers and participated in a lengthy search of the premises. Hundreds of items were examined and seized as obscene; they were not listed in the warrant, however, until the search was over.
The United States Supreme Court unanimously reversed the ensuing conviction, reasoning that “This search warrant and what followed the entry on petitioner’s premises are reminiscent of the general warrant or writ of assistance of the 18th century against which the Fourth Amendment was intended to protect. [Citations.]” (Id., at p. 325 [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 927].) The procedure was unlawful because “the warrant left it entirely to the discretion of the officials conducting the search to decide what items were likely obscene and to accomplish their seizure. The Fourth Amendment does not permit such action. [Citations.] Nor does the Fourth Amendment countenance open-ended warrants, to be completed while a search is being conducted and items seized or after the seizure has been carried out.” (Ibid. [60 L.Ed.2d at pp. 927-928].) The high court put aside the state’s reliance on the “plain view” doctrine, emphasizing that “the search began and progressed pursuant to the sweeping open-ended authorization in the warrant” and “it expanded into a more extensive search because other items were found the local justice deemed illegal.” (Ibid. [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 928].)
It is true that in the case at bar the warrant described a substantial number of items to be seized; but as shown above it is also true that the police in fact listed only enough items to obtain the warrant, then ignored that list and seized instead every item claimed by the Lanes to be stolen. Lo-Ji Sales teaches that the Fourth Amendment does not permit such “open-ended warrants, to be completed while a search is being conducted and items seized.” Indeed, if it was unlawful in that case for the town justice himself to enter the premises with the police and identify the items to be seized, it was a fortiori unlawful for the private parties in the case at bar to do the same.
Nor have the People satisfied the requirement of Skelton that the unlisted contraband seized be “reasonably identifiable” as such. The *84facility with which contraband is identifiable when discovered by a police officer in the process of executing a search warrant evidently varies from case to case. Some articles are recognized to be contraband by any officer (e.g., a sawed-off shotgun or commonly used narcotics), while others can be recognized by specially trained agents (e.g., sophisticated explosives or unusual illicit drugs); the latter are therefore not “reasonably identifiable” within the meaning of Skelton. When the property is deemed “contraband” because it is stolen,4 a similar situation arises: some goods are recognizable by any police officer as probably stolen, either because of their identification markings5 or because of such suspicious circumstances as their atypical location, condition, or quantity; while others have no distinctive features, and cannot be so recognized without the assistance of a third person having particular knowledge of their ownership. Again the latter are not “reasonably identifiable” by the officer within the meaning of Skelton, and the bulk of the property seized in the case at bar falls within that class.6
The majority admit that here “the items of personal property seized were not obvious objects of contraband,” and that without the assistance of the victims Officer Riddell “would not have known which property on defendant’s premises was stolen.” {Ante, p. 75.) The majority nevertheless claim on two grounds that the officer’s reliance on the victims to identify the property to be seized as contraband did not violate the letter of Skelton and the spirit of the Constitution. As will appear, however, neither ground is tenable.
First the majority argue that because Sergeant Riddell could have had the assistance of fellow police officers in conducting the search, his use of the victims instead for this purpose resulted in “no significant additional intrusion upon defendant’s privacy.” (Ante, p. 74.) Reality, I submit, is otherwise. A police officer has no personal interest in the property to be seized in a search for stolen goods; he is therefore able to conduct himself objectively in looking for and identifying that property. The victim of the *85theft, by contrast, is both deeply interested in the proceedings and lacks the officer’s training and experience. Accordingly, either because of the excitement engendered by the prospect of recovering his goods, or the confusion resulting from seeing such goods intermingled with the property of another in a strange environment, or a feeling of vindictiveness towards the person who purportedly stole from him, or even ordinary greed—or indeed a combination of these emotions—there is a risk that some victims will lead the police to unnecessarily broaden or lengthen the search or to seize property not actually stolen from them. The fact that the majority choose to ignore these differences between policemen and victims does not make the risk any less real.
Secondly, the majority attempt to satisfy the “nexus” requirement we set forth in People v. Hill (1974) supra, 12 Cal.3d 731, 763, i.e., “The police officers who seize an article must be presently aware of some specific and articulable fact from which a rational link between the item seized and criminal behavior can be inferred.” It is argued that “the Lanes articulated specific facts” from which Officer Riddell could reasonably infer that the items seized had been stolen from them. (Ante, p. 75.) The record, unfortunately, does not support this claim. To begin with, in the testimony of Mrs. Lane relied on by the majority the witness does not recount how she identified various items of property to Officer Riddell during the course of the search; instead, she simply explains how she can identify such items when they are presented to her in court by the deputy district attorney.7 In any event, while more than 80 items not listed in the warrant were seized by Officer Riddell, Mrs. Lane was asked on the stand about only a dozen of them; the record is silent as to her means, if any, of identifying the rest. And even as to those few, her “identification” was usually no more than a brief description of the obvious physical attributes of the article—e.g., its condition, shape, or color—all readily apparent to any casual observer.8
*86Not only is the victims’ testimony herein insufficient to provide “specific and articulable facts” as a matter of the record, it is also insufficient as a matter of law. For the facts showing a nexus, a police officer is entitled to rely on such sources as his prior knowledge of the evidence in this or other cases, the information he acquired during the search by use of his senses, and the inferences he reasonably draws therefrom in the light of his training and experience. (See, e.g., People v. Hill (1974) supra, 12 Cal.3d at p. 763.) These sources are either intrinsically reliable or have been tested and proved so. No such reliability, however, accompanies an on-the-scene claim by the crime victim that an otherwise unidentifiable article was stolen from him. On the contrary, as explained above the victim may be subject to influences that adversely affect his perception, memory or judgment, and result in a greater invasion of the defendant’s privacy than necessary.
It is precisely to forestall such risks that the Constitution requires a warrant issued by a magistrate to permit the police to enter a private home: “An intrusion by the state into the privacy of the home for any purpose is one of the most awesome incursions of police power into the life of the individual. Unrestricted authority in this area is anathema to the system of checks envisaged by the Constitution. It is essential that the dispassionate judgment of a magistrate, an official dissociated from the ‘competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime’ (Johnson v. United States (1948) 333 U.S. 10, 14 [92 L.Ed. 436, 440, 68 S.Ct. 367]), be interposed between the state and the citizen at this critical juncture.” (People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 275 [127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333].) Here the police substituted the untested opinion of interested private parties for the “dispassionate judgment of a magistrate” in determining the scope of the search and the property to be seized. For the reasons given, the technique is constitutionally intolerable. (People v. Superior Court (Williams) (1978) 77 Cal.App.3d 69, 78-80 [143 Cal.Rptr. 382].)9
It follows that the property seized by Officer Riddell was neither in fact nor in law “reasonably identifiable as contraband” within the meaning of *87Skelton. Accordingly, the majority err in invoking the language of that decision in which we concluded that no purpose other than an “exquisite formalism” would be served by requiring an officer to obtain further authorization before seizing unlisted articles that were identifiable as contraband. (Ante, p. 76.) On the record of the case at bar the question whether the unlisted articles in defendant’s house were contraband and hence could be seized should have been submitted to the judgment of a neutral and detached magistrate. To permit the police to decide that question in their unfettered discretion, as do the majority, is not to avoid an “exquisite formalism” but to fail in a fundamental constitutional duty.
The police practice here in issue, moreover, is not only unlawful, it is also dangerous. In the case at bar the unauthorized persons who accompanied the officer were the victims of the crime; in Williams and Scigliano it was an erstwhile accomplice turned police informer. It needs little prescience to visualize the potential for explosive confrontations that will arise if these or other interested third parties become routinely involved, whether gratuitously or by police sufferance or invitation, in the process of entering private homes and seizing personal property found. inside.10 The majority nevertheless place their stamp of approval on this procedure, upholding the participation of the victims in Officer Riddell’s search on the ground they were “acting essentially in the capacity of police agents” (ante, p. 74). We ignore at our peril, I submit, the sad lessons that history teaches as to the high price of vigilante justice: when private citizens are encouraged to act as “police agents,” official lawlessness thrives and the liberties of all are put in jeopardy. Surely we should not now repeat the mistakes of a discredited era of our frontier past.11
*88Finally, perhaps the true motive of the majority appears at the outset of their opinion, where the device here used is repeatedly praised as “efficient” and “highly effective” (ante, p. 70). When the inalienable right of privacy (Cal. Const., art. I, § 1) is at stake, however, this court has not heretofore been seduced by the appeal to expediency. In our landmark decision of People v. Cahan (1955) 44 Cal.2d 434 [282 P.2d 905, 50 A.L.R.2d 513], we firmly rejected the argument that the police should be permitted to ignore the constitutional restrictions on search and seizure simply because it is more “efficient” for them to do so: we explained, “both the United States Constitution and the California Constitution make it emphatically clear that important as efficient law enforcement may be, it is more important that the right of privacy guaranteed by these constitutional provisions be respected. Since in no case shall the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures be violated, the contention that unreasonable searches and seizures are justified by the necessity of bringing criminals to justice cannot be accepted. It was rejected when the constitutional provisions were adopted and the choice was made that all the people, guilty and innocent alike, should be secure from unreasonable police intrusions, even though some criminals should escape.” (Fn. omitted; id. at p. 438.) Quoting Justice Frankfurter, we admonished, “ ‘it cannot be said too often that what is involved far transcends the fate of some sordid offender. Nothing less is involved than that which makes for an atmosphere of freedom as against a feeling of fear and repression for society as a whole.’ ” (Id., at p. 449.)
As the United States Supreme Court recently reiterated, “the mere fact that law enforcement may be made more efficient can never by itself justify disregard of the Fourth Amendment. [Citation.] The investigation of crime would always be simplified if warrants were unnecessary. But the Fourth Amendment reflects the view of those who wrote the Bill of Rights that the privacy of a person’s home and property may not be totally sacrificed in the name of maximum simplicity in enforcement of the criminal law.” (Mincey v. Arizona (1978) 437 U.S. 385, 393 [57 L.Ed.2d 290, 301, 98 S.Ct. 2408].)
The specter of crime victims or criminals turned informers joining the police in ransacking private homes in the name of “efficiency” is a chilling prospect indeed. Not surprisingly, the device has never before *89been sanctioned by this court. Yet because of the inevitable pressures of “the competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime,” I fear it will become standard police operating procedure in the future. I cannot join in this erosion of the constitutional rights of all free citizens.
Bird, C. J., and Newman, J., concurred.
Appendix
“Q. [by the deputy public defender]. Now, did you at any time take the search warrant with the list of things that are mentioned in here and actually look for those particular items? A. [by Officer Riddell], Yes, sir.
“Q. And when did you do that? A. It would have been shortly after the search.
“Q. Shortly after the search? A. Subsequent thereto.
“Q. Do you mean by that Mr. or Mrs. Lane came in and pointed out items that were theirs, you confiscated all those items and went through the list and see what items you confiscated on the list? Would that be a fair statement? A. In essence, yes.
“Q. When Mr. and Mrs. Lane came in with you, prior to the time they came in with you, did you make a specific search for each and every one of these items listed on the search warrant? A. No, sir.
it
“Q. All right. And did you and the Lanes go through each and every item in [Glenn Spencer’s] room? A. We did.
“Q. Did you take out the search warrant, go through the list and see if any items in the search warrant were there? A. I did not.
“Q. Could you tell me how many items in Glenn Spencer’s room you showed to the Lanes? A. Thousands.
“Q. Could you tell me how many items in Jamie Gaumer’s room you showed to the
Lanes? A. Hundreds.
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“Q. Now, after you had completed the search of Glenn Spencer’s room, where did you and the Lanes go? A. The hall closet between Spencer’s room and Gaumer’s room.
“Q. All right. And again, was the same procedure followed: all the items in that particular closet were shown to the Lanes? A. That’s correct.
“Q. And again you did not go through the list, check off and see if the items were there? A. That’s correct.
“Q. How many items did you show the Lanes from,the hall closet? A. A number. Probably less than a hundred.
tí
“Q. Now, was—when you entered into the room you identified as Mark Meyer’s was the same procedure followed again: you take each and every item in the room and show it to the Lanes and see if they could identify it? A. That’s correct.
“Q. And again, you did not take the list in the search warrant and look for each of those particular items? A. We did not.
it
“Q. After you went through the room that you identified as Mark Meyer’s did you proceed to another area in the house? A. Yes, sir, I did.
“Q. All right. And what area was that? A. This would have been the room opposite Mark Meyers’ room.
*90“Q. All right. And whose room is that? A. Glenn Spencer indicated that it was his
room. . . .
<<
“Q. All right. Did you find any particular items in that room? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. All right. And was the same procedure followed with you taking items and showing them to the Lanes and having them identify them? A. That’s correct.
“Q. And how many items did you show the Lanes from that room? A. I would say less than 50.
“Q. All right. And how many items of those 50 or so, or less than 50, did the Lanes identify as theirs?
<(
“A. Twenty-one.
“Q. Now, of these 21 items, were any of those items listed in the search warrant? A. Not specifically, no.
“Q. And again, you did not take the search warrant and the items listed therein and go through the rooms to see if any of those items were there? A. That’s correct, I did not do that.
“Q. After looking in that particular room, did you go into another area of the house?
A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Where was that? A. This was the living room areá.
“Q. All right. And again, was the same procedure followed: showing items to the Lanes. A. Yes.
“Q. How many items in the living room were shown to the Lanes? A. Everything that was in the room.
it
“Q. All right. And again, you did not take the search warrant and go through the list and look for the particular items listed therein? A. That’s correct.
“Q. After the living room, where did you go? A. The kitchen area.
“Q. All right. And again, was the same procedure followed: showing items to the Lanes? A. Yes.
“Q. How many items were shown to the Lanes? A. A number.
“Q. Could you give me an estimate of how many? A. In the area of a hundred.
“Q. Would it be fair to state that you showed the Lanes every item that was in the room? A. That’s correct.
“Q. How many items did they identify as theirs? A. They identified six items belonging to them. '
“Q. All right. And were any of those six items listed in the search warrant itself? A. No, sir.
“Q. All right. And again, you didn’t go into the room with the search warrant and look for those particular items that were listed? A. That’s correct.
“Q. And after the kitchen, where did you go? A. Family room.
“Q. Again, the same procedure followed: showing the items in that room to the Lanes?
A. That’s correct.
66
“Q. And again, you didn’t go through the list on the search warrant in the family room looking for particular items listed? A. That’s correct.
“Q. And after the family room, where did you go? A. To the garage area.
“Q. And again, the same procedure was followed? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. All right. And how many items did you show the Lanes there? A. Again, a number. I don’t know the exact number.
“Q. Did they identify any items belonging to them? A. No, they did not.
“Q. And again, you did not take the search warrant and go through the list and see if the items listed in the search warrant were in the garage? A. That’s correct.
“Q. After the garage, where did you go? A. That concluded the search.”

The exception is also unavailable unless the warrant that the police are in the process of executing is “a valid search warrant.” Defendant does not question the validity of the warrant in the case at bar.

The relevant testimony is quoted in an appendix to this opinion.

“Q. [by the deputy district attorney]. After you discovered that your residence had
*82been apparently burglarized or in the condition that you described, did you make an inventory of the items that were taken? A. Yes, sir, we did.
“Q. Was that inventory of items that were apparently taken from your residence reduced to the list that is shown in the affidavit and the search warrant? A. The items on the search warrant was [s/c] only a partial list, and at the time we were told that this was sufficient—sufficient inventory to warrant the search warrant, that we needn’t give all the items.”
With respect to these known but unspecified articles, of course, it is clear that no exigency existed. The police had probable cause to believe they were located on defendant’s premises, and could easily have included them in the affidavit and warrant. As to them, accordingly, any “emergency” thaf.arose on the scene was of Officer Riddell’s own making and cannot justify invoking an exception to the warrant requirement. {United States v. Hare (6th Cir. 1979) 589 F.2d 1291, 1293.)

As we indicated in People v. Hill (1974) supra, 12 Cal.3d 731, 762, quoting from Warden v. Hayden (1967) 387 U.S. 294, 307 [18 L.Ed.2d 782, 792, 87 S.Ct. 1642], under this exception stolen property may also be seized as the “fruits” of crime.

For example, among the items seized in defendant’s house were a leather case with the name and address of Mr. Lane stamped on it, and a lady’s handbag containing personal papers in the name of Mrs. Lane.

E.g., costume jewelry, personal and desk accessories, clothing, and linens. In this category of goods seized, however, were some that are so generally available and so fungible that it is difficult to conceive how they could be positively identified by anyone, e.g., brand named canned goods (Green Giant Sweet Peas, Del Monte Whole Green Beans) and liquor (Canadian Mist, LeJon Brandy).

Thus the question of the prosecutor which elicits the response quoted by the majority (at fn. 6) is not “How did you identify this bottle to Officer Riddell?” But “How can you identify [i.e., in court] this particular bottle as belonging to you? Is there anything you recognize about it?” All the prosecutor’s questions on this topic are similarly phrased.

Indeed, the most detailed “identification” furnished by Mrs. Lane was her short description of People’s exhibit No. 4, a bottle of liqueur, quoted in full by the majority (at fn. 6). Even in that instance, however, the witness was able to point only to the brand or label (“design”) of the bottle; she did add that the excise tax seal (“pink liquor seal”) would show it was bought in Nevada, but she admitted she did not know whether that bottle had borne such a seal or not. Even if it had, of course, there is no showing that the Lanes were the only residents of this Marin community who bought liquor in Nevada.

The majority disapprove Williams (at fn. 9), but fail to refute its arguments. I would follow this clear California precedent rather than, as do the majority, an opinion of the Arizona court. (State v. Scigliano (1978) 120 Ariz. 6 [583 P.2d 893].) In any event, the latter case is clearly distinguishable on its facts. As noted above, in the present matter the police conducted a general exploratory search that was not intended to discover merely the items named in the warrant, and none of those items was in fact found. In Scigliano, by contrast, the unlisted articles were discovered “during a limited search which was reasonably calculated to locate items actually named in the warrant, as opposed to a general exploratory search of the premises” (id.,'at p. 896), and “Many, if not all, of the items specified in the warrants were found.” (Id., at p. 894.)

As a matter of fact a violent confrontation occurred at an earlier stage of this very case. Soon after the burglary Mrs. Lane became suspicious that the stolen property might be located in defendant’s house; she asked that a search warrant be issued, but the request was refused for lack of evidence. She then told the police that if they could not help her she intended to go to defendant’s house herself and look for her property. She admitted on the witness stand that the police specifically warned her “that I didn’t have the right to do that, that it would be the wrong thing to do.” Despite this warning, Mrs. Lane and her husband went to defendant’s house at 10 o’clock that night, opened the garage door, and entered. Mrs. Lane discovered a large bag of garbage near the kitchen entrance to the garage, turned it upside down onto the floor, and rummaged through its contents until she found several items she recognized as hers. As the Lanes were leaving, defendant came out of the house and began cursing them telling them they had no right to enter his garage and threatening that “he was going to get us good.” Officer Riddell testified that in an oral statement after his arrest defendant admitted he “confronted” the Lanes in his garage, told them they were trespassing, and “hit the gentleman,” i.e., Mr. Lane.

 Vigilantes “were, unquestionably, composed in the main of sturdy and conscientious men, indignant at the spectacle of crime unleashed, and honestly trying to find a remedy for a flaw in the social structure; yet their successors, in too many cases, were neither *88sturdy nor conscientious, were dominated by personal bias or passion, and committed crimes that made the name Vigilante a reproach and a warning.” (Coblentz, Villains and Vigilantes (1936) p. 252.)