Personally, as Mr Gain said, IMO, stuff that in my case is insured, is not worth my tangling with anyone who may be better at this "gun thing" than me and I am not replaceable--this goes for my car and my home when I am not directly in contact with the BG. In my home, for example, I lock our bedroom door at night--if someone breaks into my home in a different area of house, I will activate car alarm, call 911, and stay in my bedroom--if the BG decides to defeat my locked door, he has now called into play imminent danger and pure Castle Doctrine, IMO, and it will then be the last thing he ever does, but the insured stuff in the other rooms--it is not worth my life. I should preface the "home comments" by saying it is just my wife and I and no childen or others living in other parts of the house--that is whole other story.
When I first read the part of this reply about locking one's self inside an interior room as a way of delineating between "stuff" and life, I loved the idea. I still think it's quite a creative solution, but then I remembered something that happened to me in '85. My house caught fire. It happened overnight and it just so happened that both I and my girlfriend at the time worked the graveyard shift (still do - jeesh, when will I learn?) and neither of us were in the house. Never knew for sure what caused the fire, but it wasn't arson or anything like that. Point being, it was either a cigarette left burning, or a pile of dust-bunnies not cleaned up in the gas furnace, or some other accidental or negligent cause on our part. The vast majority of damage was caused by the smoke, not by flames. Had we been there sleeping, we would have almost certainly been overcome by the smoke before we could've mounted a fight against the fire, and being behind a locked door would've slowed down the firefighters at least as much as a burglar. After applying that life experience, I had second thoughts about the strategy, but I still love any idea that is intended to prevent or delay the need to shoot someone, even a scumbag trying to steal one's stuff. Interesting and creative idea kelcarry. Just give some thought to how that strategy might affect your other emergency plans.
As to the OP, I was a committed and hard-working activist for Alabama's Castle Doctrine law, and it does extend to one's car the protections it affords to the home as far as defense of property and life. We won, and obviously I'm stoked and proud to have been an active part of making it happen. However, armed or not, I would not have done anything that OrlandoChuck described having done in his scenario, except the yelling part. But the yelling would've been as I was in retreat, heading for the front door where he said the cop was, or for cover from where I could still witness and report while discretely calling 911 on my cell phone. I would've taken the same action (or lack thereof, depending on your perspective) whether I was carrying or not (which I definitely would have been), and whether or not there was a good, strong Castle Doctrine and/or Stand Your Ground law in effect. I definitely would have NOT grabbed anything from the back of the truck. No need to use insulting language to describe that particular part of the story since the OP asked our opinions in good faith (I presume), but I'll just leave it at I think that was a very bad idea.
Bottom line, I don't carry because I'm looking for some legal justification for shooting someone. I carry to protect mine and my wife's lives first, other innocents I'm in close proximity to second, and as a component of my overall preparedness plans and duty to community third. In the OP's scenario, it would have been his introduction of a firearm to the circumstances that turned it from a property theft to a potentially deadly situation. I can't justify that either logically, ethically, or morally, even if it can be justified legally, which I have no idea of as it pertains to FL.
Let's be careful out there folks. There are grave threats against our rights being perpetrated by the very people charged with protecting them. Let's not give them any added ammo ('scuse the pun) to further restrict them.
Blues