Naw, these kids were into drugs and up to no good. Little did they realize but that some folks just don’t share the same value system that they do, and were accustomed to taking advantage of that fact all their bratty lives.
So let’s say they’re not in Minnesota, but are creeping around some stranger’s house in, say, Mexico City. Do you think maybe they’d give pause to consider the advisability of sneaking down into the cellar? They figured the odds were all in their favor.
It’s possible this old coot went out and caught these spry teenagers on the street, and marched them into his house and down into his dungeon, but not likely. These kids found the wrong house to plunder and rob. Too bad the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, but it’s too bad for them, not the old man down in the workshop of his basement, tinkering around and minding his own business on Thanksgiving Day. What he saw creeping down the cellar stairs were two varmints up to no good. It’s just too bad for those kids. Maybe they didn’t deserve it, but they
had to be willing to accept the risk when they did what they did.
I would vote not guilty. I’m sick and tired of the looter/taker/moocher class.
My gut tells me his whole story is bs. I don’t believe they broke in. They just walked for miles in the snow and decided randomly to walk across his spread and break into his house? Theres no mention of them having a vehicle nearby. Then thre’s the part about the guy going down in the basement, being shot, and a few minutes later she decideds to walk down into the basement? Um, sure.
I suspect they will find this guy somehow lured them to his house, or abducted them, then made up the story to try to justify it.