this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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me_irl
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Mark Rober is headed this direction for me.
Mark Rober lost me with his porch pirate booby traps.
First of all, booby traps are illegal for a reason. Second of all, a lot of it was staged and it was pretty obvious.
Booby traps are illegal if there is an intent to do harm. Something like this, or rigging your sprinklers to turn on when someone steps on your lawn wouldn't be.
If you intentionally turn on your sprinklers as a deterrent, and it does damage to a person or property, you'd be liable for that.
What if someone had important papers that you ruined. Or you broke their non-waterproof phone? What if someone was stepping off the sidewalk to let a wheelchair pass and you just doused them and the person in the wheelchair?
What if your automated sprinkler starts spraying the EMTs or Firefighters coming to help you cause you fell in your bathroom and can't get up? What if it shorts out the Lifepack they were going to use to check your heart and deliver an AED shock, and now someone died?
Automated booby traps are always bad because you can't judge the intent of the person, or animal, that might trigger it.