A person may use degree of force believed necessary to prevent or end forcible entry into home. GS 14-51.1.
A person may use reasonable, non-deadly force to protect property. State v. Lee, 258 NC 44.
As an incident to the indubitable right to acquire and own property, recognized by the Constitution of North Carolina and the Constitution of the United States, a person in possession of property, either as owner, or as the agent or servant of the owner, has the legal right to defend and protect it from threatened and impending injury or destruction at the hands of an aggressor, or if it is personal property, to prevent it from being unlawfully taken, or injured, or destroyed by another, and in doing so he may use such force as is reasonably necessary, and no more than is reasonably necessary, to accomplish this end, subject to the qualification that, in the absence of a felonious use of force on the part of the aggressor, human life must not be endangered or great bodily harm inflicted. Bailey v. Ferguson, 209 N.C. 264, 183 S.E. 275; Curlee v. Scales, 200 N.C. 612, 158 S.E. 89; S. v. Scott, 142 N.C. 582, 55 S.E. 69; S. v. Yancey, 74 N.C. 244; S. v. Morgan, 25 N.C. 186, 38 Am. Dec. 714; Com. v. Donahue, 148 Mass. 529, 20 N.E. 171, 2 L.R.A. 623, 12 Am. St. Rep. 591 (opinion by Holmes, J.); S. v. Shilling, Mo. App., 212 S.W. 2d 96; Ryerson v. Carter, 92 N.J. Law 363, 105 A. 723, affirmed 93 N.J. Law 477, 108 A. 927; 6 C.J.S., Assault and Battery, secs. 20 and 94; 4 Am. Jur., Assault and Battery, secs. 61-73; Wharton's Criminal Law and Practice, Anderson Ed., secs. 353 and 354; Annotations: 25 A.L.R. 508, 537-564, 32 A.L.R. 1541, 34 A.L.R. 1488. "To this extent the right to protect one's possession has been regarded as an extension of the right to protect one's person, with which it is generally mentioned." Com. v. Donahue, supra.
Blackstone says: "In defense of my goods or possession if a man endeavors to deprive me of them, I may justify laying hands upon him to prevent him; and in case he persists with violence, I may proceed to beat him away. * * * And, if sued for this or the like battery, he may set forth the whole case, and plead that he laid hands upon him gently, molliter manus imposuit, for this purpose." 3 Bl. Com. 121.
Ordinarily, whether the force used in the defense of property is greater than the circumstances of the case justify or the violence of the attack warrants is for the jury to determine. Curlee v. Scales, supra; S. v. Goode, 130 N.C. 651, 41 S.E. 3; S. v. Taylor, 82 N.C. 554; Annotation: 25 A.L.R. 548. State v Lee at 47
Hon Marshall Bickett