WOODSTOCK – For burglars, the difference between prison and probation could be whether someone is living in the house being burglarized, according to a recent appellate court ruling on a McHenry County case.

After a jury trial in February 2011, Brett A. Roberts, 39, was convicted of residential burglary and criminal damage to property for stealing copper pipes from a vacant home in May 2010 on Queen Anne Road near Woodstock.

A real estate agent had gone into the home to check on it and interrupted the burglary, prosecutors said.