A type of burglary in which a heavy vehicle is deliberately driven into the windows or doors of a building, typically a retail store or jewelry shop, to breach the entrance and allow rapid theft of merchandise; automated teller machines are also frequent targets, broken open to reach their cash boxes, with stolen goods often resold through black markets. The term originates in northern England: the Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest recorded use of ram raid to a 1987 article in the Newcastle upon Tyne Evening Chronicle, with the related term ram-raider appearing in the same source that year, though the technique itself gained wider attention after a series of raids in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1979 that went on to inspire similar crimes in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. In most jurisdictions ram raiding is prosecuted under existing burglary or robbery statutes rather than as its own defined offense, though New Zealand became a notable exception when it introduced the Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill in 2023 to address the crime specifically.
Facts
Elements of OffenseUsing a vehicle to break into and gain entry into premises, or attempting to do so, usually to steal the contents 1 Jurisdiction VariationIn most jurisdictions ram-raiding is treated as a type of burglary or robbery, as few jurisdictions have defined it as a specific criminal offence 1 Violent or Non-Violent Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
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Source Wikipedia, Ram-raidingArticle bodyQuote, Article body
The term came into widespread use after a series of such raids in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1979
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Ram-raiding
Introduction, definition of the act
using a vehicle to break into and gain entry into premises, or attempt to do so, usually to steal the contents
Introduction, legal treatment
In most jurisdictions the act is considered a type of burglary, or robbery, as few jurisdictions have defined the act as a specific criminal offence.
Lead paragraph
Ram-raiding is a type of burglary in which a heavy vehicle is driven into the windows or doors of a building, usually a department store or jeweller's shop, to allow the perpetrators to loot it.
In Group: Armed Robbery of Banks, Trains, Mail and Ships, Lead sentence
Ram-raiding is a type of burglary in which a heavy vehicle is driven into the windows or doors of a building, usually a department store or jeweller's shop, to allow the perpetrators to loot it.
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