This was not the direction that I wanted events to take. I want my player characters to be heroes. In the Buffy TV show, the Cast Members may occasionally mistreat each other, but they deal fairly and squarely with all the nonplayer characters. That's one of the things that separates Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Angel.
Because of what happened to their son in this Episode, the Ramirezes are already victims. To have the victims further victimized by breaking into their home, regardless of the intent, is not heroic; it's mercenary. However, at the time the action was proposed, I hadn't thought about how to handle this sort of thing and no solution was apparent, so I let it ride.
Later, after I had the chance to consider things, I came up with what I think is a solution. I informed my players that if they propose for their characters a course of action that's at odds with the tone of the Series (and they don't have a very good story-telling reason for doing this), I'll explain my concern and I'll give them the chance to change their minds. But if they decide to go through with the action, at the end of the session, I'll reduce their Drama Point award by one. They agreed that this was reasonable.
I think that this will keep our heroes heroic. And if a hero does stumble (as Willow did when she became addicted to magic in Season 6 of the show), it will be for the purpose of setting up a significant subplot.