If zombies are wandering around the abandoned town, I'd say "Most definitely YES!" But in other situations, you'll have to make a judgement call. These days, even in normal times, criminals seem to have more rights than their victims. So in times of disaster, I would make a guess that being "a little bit of a minor league criminal" wouldn't get you into too much trouble. YMMV.

I'd prefer to be prepared, but if it really came down to facing death or going against my moral character and breaking into a store to take something I need, I'd probably do the latter. True looters on the other hand, tend to act like things "they really need to survive" include television sets, Playstation gaming systems, etc. That is never right or justifiable.