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Comment by yummyfajitas | Hacker News Reader

Regarding spring guns, fun fact: it is illegal for you to make your home unsafe for burglars and other lawbreakers in most US states.

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More generally, boobytrapping stuff has lots of potential harm to lots of potential people. (gas company employees, police, etc). The fact that it's also harmful to thiefs is tangential.

My middle school got bitten by this. The roof collapsed on a burglar and he successfully sued the school. At the time he was not doing anything illegal (as he was outside a public school). The roof was unsafe and we have laws against that to protect HVAC technicians and the like.

That he was up to no good was irrelevant.

I'd presume that trespass would apply to this situation, although it would not likely invalidate the lawsuit outright.

That's the thing. As a public school, at least in our area, you're allowed to be on the grounds when the school isn't open. You just can't go inside.

I once was ticketed for being at a park after sunset in our town. The cop explained to my friends and I that if we had just been across the street at the elementary school then it wouldn't have been a problem.

Why bother robbing anyone when you can just trespass on unsafe-looking property and sue?

I don't know. Are you volunteering to have a roof collapse on top of you in the hope of successfully suing the property owner? I'm not.

No, I think that would still be ethically a form of robbery, even if legally it's not.

I've heard of a copper thief successfully suing a power company for his injuries while cracking into a hot transformer.

Intending to you kill someone for robbing you is illegal as well if you are not in danger (being at work in this case)

Intending to you kill someone for robbing you is illegal as well if you are not in danger

Actually, that depends entirely on which state you live in. Some states under Castle Doctrine allow deadly force to prevent the commission of any felony in your home, including robbery.

That, so far as I know, does not apply to booby traps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Doctrine_in_the_United_S...

You're correct--the Castle Doctrine only pertains to places when you physically occupy them (home, or car/work in some states), so setting up something to injure or kill someone on another one of those premises does not fall within those guidelines.

I thought all that was necessary was to place warning signs. i.e. if you leave a big sign that says "warning this house is booby trapped and unsafe" that's sufficient to protect you against a burglar who sues you for the leg that your spring-loaded machete hacked off.

That's why I suggested them. Lots of illegal activity all at once makes for the best reading.

Next up: PleaseArrestMe.com, highlighting all the illegal activity that people have put up on teh intarwebs for public consumption.

Don't forget PleaseFireMe.com and PleaseDontHireMe.com

Those two have already been developed: facebook.com

Pleasefireme.com is some intense stuff. http://bit.ly/95MVU1

This is true, I forget where but a few years back a burglar sued a homeowner and won because he entered a cabin and a springloaded shotgun blew off his leg

I don't get how they can win a civil case. Maybe if the homeowner broke a law and get criminal charges, but why did the burglar win for having no good intentions being in the house?

Same thing for the burglar school case. If the roofs weren't safe for hvac technicians, why does the burglar win the case? They should at least be able to defend their reason to be there, and the school should be charged seperatley for shifty construction.

Hmmm... I always assumed those laws were there to protect police, firefighters, paramedics, etc... Protecting "burglars and other lawbreakers" certainly makes more sense though. :/

The laws are there for a number of reasons but mostly to protect the general public. If someone has to break into your house to save a life (like someone choking) they shouldn't have put their lives at additional risk by having to avoid traps.

The laws have to be apply to everyone for them to be effective.

However, it is legal to use deadly force against an intruder if you're in a life threatening situation. An interesting test case would be to install a wall switch that remotely disables the brakes on your car (so that an intruder can put you in a life threatening situation even when you're not home) and a booby trap that automatically kills anyone approaching it.

Nope, that is not interesting, it is plain dumb. The intruder here has neither knowledge of the situation nor intent to kill you. You might as well put such a switch on a public sidewalk and shoot anyone approaching it.

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