[PokeReader]

OK, sorry wasn't able to post right away. CA is the worst state for intruder laws. You can be successfully sued if someone is breaking in and falls through your skylight and is injured. Can only use force necessary to immediately protect life and physical attack, must retreat if possible, as soon as threat is negated must stop force, must use minimal force needed to repell threat, generally bad for home owners. Depends on locality for how they enforce it though, does he live in a city, small town? Generally, the thief could definitely sue if he had permanent damage, (by the way, this post won't help him if they find it). If the prosecutors were sure he continued to spray after the guy was disabled, and didn't render any first aid, would they bring criminal charges - depends on local DA, age of defendant, defendant's criminal record, what he, (the defendant), says to the police, his level of damage, your father's criminal record and the serious crime level in your father's neighborhood. I'm not saying it's definite or even likely, but it's possible - there is a lot of race politics in large CA cities that can come into these decisions. If he lives in LA itself, or one of the other largest CA cities, he would definitely be better getting a different deterrent.