This case isn't really concerning burglars, but the same principle applies:
A number of years ago here in Milwaukee, two "men" were being chased in a stolen car, and the driver of the stolen car caused an accident. The vehicles involved in the accident were the stolen car, a second car, a semi (a lorry), and a County bus, and a building was involved, too (Brother Booker Ashe's House of Peace). The driver of the semi was forced into the storefront window of the House of Peace by the stolen car (the car then hitting the bus and the other car) and the truck driver was pretty shaken. All of the witnesses to the accident, including Brother Ashe and the people in the House of Peace, told the truck driver and the investigating officers that the truck driver was not at fault.
Fast forward about a year: the passenger of the stolen car, now a quadruplegic, sued the truck driver for his injuries sustained in the accident. Witnesses for the defense were the investigating officers, the people from the House of Peace, the bus driver, and the driver of the car that was hit.
He (the passenger) won. He got a seven figure judgement against the truck driver. The truck driver lost his "ticket" (his license to drive a truck), his insurance, and his job. I've heard two differing stories as to what happened later concerning the case (one saying that the judgement was overturned completely because the "facts" presented by the prosecution didn't add up or that the stuff presented by the defense was found too convincing by the Court of Appeals, the other saying that the truck driver lost his appeal and either killed himself or had to take a lower paying job while his family went on the dole to make ends meet.)
As the saying goes, sh*t happens.
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine