Can You Booby Trap Your House Against Burglars? Ep. 5.252

hello welcome once again to Latos well I'm Steve Leto today we're talking about whether or not you can booby trap your house could you booby trap your house legally so that it shoots an intruder for instance when you're not there this is actually something that's been discussed a lot in courts and the answer might not be what you like assuming that you want to protect your property but of course if you're a burglar you're gonna like the results but someone asked me about this and I said Steve can you actually discuss as a specific case called Catco versus briney which sounds old-school and it is it's from Iowa but this case is a very good discussion of the rationale behind why you cannot set what's called a trap gun or a spring gun or you can't set some kind of booby trap that will severely injure somebody who's trespassing on your property and so the rationale that people have is well I you know I let's suppose you own two houses ya live in one and the other house let's say you inherited it in second on the side of town or a different town and kids keep breaking into it they keep stealing stuff you put up no trespassing signs they tear down the signs they they vandalize the signs they write nasty notes to you and they steal stuff from the house so one day when you're fed up you decide I'm gonna actually rig the house I'm gonna put a gun in there so when someone breaks in they're trespassing right when they break in they get shot I mean doesn't that seem like that's somewhat kind of justice no it's not and here's the thing I'm gonna discuss the case from Iowa first then I'm gonna discuss it more broadly but the case from Iowa is a Catco versus briney and what happened here was that a man owned a house that kept getting broken into and he was getting sick and tired of it so he set up a shotgun in the bedroom of the house mounted it so is aimed at the door to the bedroom someone had to be in the house to get shot and he wired it so that if they opened the door it would shoot the person who opened the door and he made a mental note next time I go to my house don't open that door and someone of course broke in and the shotgun took a part of their leg off okay and that person the burglar sued the homeowner now we've discussed before but whether than a burglar concealment injuries that he incurs while he's in the property but here the thing about it is that this time the property owner injured the person very very severely so at trial the plaintiff who was the burglar won a jury gave him money so the homeowner filed an appeal and it made it to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1971 and the primary issue presented here is whether an owner may protect personal property in an unoccupied boarded-up farmhouse against trespassers and thieves by a spring gun capable of inflicting death or serious injury here are some facts plaintiff action is for damages resulting from serious injury caused by shotgun 20-gauge spring set by defendants in a bedroom of an old farmhouse which has been uninhabited for several years plaintiff and his companion broke into and entered the house and they were specifically there defined and steal old bottles and they considered them to be antiques they thought they were aware they're gonna steal him at defendants request plaintiffs action was tried to a jury consisting of residents of the community where defendants property was located so the guy thought hey I'll get a jury of the peers of the people who lived near the farmhouse maybe they'll understand the idea that I'm trying to protect my farmhouse jury returned a verdict for plaintiff and against defendants now here's the thing and this has shows you that times have changed since 1971 plaintiff was awarded twenty thousand dollars the actual damages and ten thousand punitive today that be all times you know a couple thousand each most of the facts are not disputed defendant Bertha brainy inherited her parents farm land in Mahaska and Monroe counties including that was the house that's in question here no one lived there and for about ten years there were a series of break-ins at the house and so throughout those years they boarded the house up they tried to secure the house people would just show up out through the crowbar and bust their way back in so on June 11th 1967 defendant said his shotgun trap in the North bedroom mr. briney cleaned and oiled his 20 gauge shotgun the power of which he was well aware and defendants took it to the old house they secured it to an iron bed with the barrel pointed at the bedroom door rigged to the wire from the doorknob to the trigger briney first pointed the gun so as an intruder would be hit in the stomach as if you can be that specific when you're not there but at mrs. bry knees suggestion they aimed lower just just to shoot the person in the legs and and he asked you know was he was asked on the stand why did you do this and he admitted I was mad and being tormented and I didn't intend to injure anyone well when you say something that's stupid on the stand you didn't intend to injure anybody with your 20 gauge shotgun aimed at their legs so the spring gun could not be seen from the outside there was no warning or anything to indicate that the house was you know rigged to kill you so when the man broke in opened the door it blew off part of his leg including much of his tibia but he did not lose the leg the leg was saved so he managed to crawl some distance to his vehicle rushed to a doctor and then to a hospital he was hospitalized for 40 days and then he filed a lawsuit against the homeowner for rigging the house with the gun so here's the thing the man who got shot admitted he had no right to be in there in fact he pled guilty to larceny he admitted he stole he's yeah and by the way the larceny was a plea bargain in case you're curious because obviously breaking into a building is different than stealing okay but you know there's a bunch of different things he could've been charged with I'm not sure the law was in Iowa in 1967 or 68 but apparently they plea bargained it down to larceny he pled guilty to it and that came out of trial I said yeah I'm guilty I'm guilty of a crime doesn't mean that a civilian gets to shoot my leg off for it so the main thrust of the defendant the homeowner here is that the law permits use of a spring gun in a dwelling or warehouse for the purpose of preventing the unlawful entry of a burglar or thief well the problem is that that's not true in fact most states including Michigan and I'll read you the statute a second have got specific laws saying you cannot set up a deadly do vice that'll harm somebody and then leave and then let it harm somebody and say well they were breaking the law because as you can imagine as a couple problems there one of which is you know suddenly you're the judge jury and executioner as we say and number two in most states you cannot use deadly force to protect private property if there's no life being threatened so if you come at me with a gun and say give me your money if I can manage to kill you in that process that's what you get for pulling a gun on me however if you break into my house when I'm not there and I have you killed the person being killed wasn't threatening appease Lex known as their so the idea of an unattended spring gun is a problem so they discussed all of these things and they pointed out that breaking into the house it's unoccupied is not a felony of violence because that's one of the things that guy's trying to say is look the guy's breaking into a house he's a burglar you know burglars it's a felon yeah but there's no one whose life was threatened so such as the rule even though the injured party's a trespasser and he's in violation of the law himself he can actually recover at law and that's why he's in court now so here's the question and they discuss a bunch of other cases and they talk about the law has always placed a higher value upon human safety than among upon mere rights and property okay my life is more important than your thing whatever your thing is it is if the accepted rule there's no privilege to use any force calculated to cause death or serious bodily injury to repel the threat to land or channels which is personal belongings unless there's also a threat to defend its personal safety as to justify self-defense and so one of the things are they're getting it here is that let's suppose people kept breaking into your house while you were there okay if you wanted to you'd be able to make a better argument set in that spring gun at your own bedroom hook to your own bed while you're sleeping in that bed someone breaks in your house and they're coming in to get you and the gun goes up and shoots them it's no different than if you shot them yourself but you being there is the element that changes des because your life is presumably threatened if your life was threatened whether you fired the gun or the spring fired the gun makes no difference both will be attributed to you you set the gun up to fire but you would have had the right to fire the gun and if you had the right to fire the gun then it doesn't matter it was sprung or trigger pulled and they go through a bunch of cases from other states out of Ohio a plaintiff sued when he broke a door latch and started to enter a warehouse and two sticks of dynamite blew him up and the warehouse owner had put the sticks of dynamite there to teach him you know some a burglar a lesson in Colorado a plaintiff was allowed to recover compensatory and punitive damages for injuries from a spring gun defendant had placed at a filling station to keep people from stealing gasoline at night in Georgia a plaintiff was awarded injuries from a spring gun which was simply just set to guard a house in Texas defendant rigged a bomb inside his theater so that anyone came to the door the bomb would explode now you have to understand besides the fact he sound like bad comics the guy plants a bomb to blow up and explode and kill the trespasser and says I'm doing it to protect my theater that I just blew up with my bomb in case you want to look that one up is called Phelps versus a hamlet Texas Civil Appeals 207 Southwest 425 some of you'll know how to look that up in united's Inc versus chemical co versus Britt the court states and this is a US case the liability for spring guns and man-traps arises from the fact that the defendant has expected the trespasser and prepared an injury that is no more justified than if he had held the gun and fired it himself okay and so it's like I said a whole host of these including people being charged with very serious crimes because their spring gun killed somebody and the question simply becomes wait isn't that just murder could be and by the way they point out that the idea of spring guns being illegal goes back to England and a common law and many states and countries make them illegal by statute meaning the law says these things are illegal so in the case of Iowa there the man who broke into the empty farmhouse to steal things from it got shot with a spring gun trap set by the owner louse and and sued successfully and there's no question that man was trespassing but as you might guess the penalty for trespassing is not we shall saw your leg off at the knee and I understand he didn't lose the leg but he came close and it's not that we will blast you in the knee and you limp for the rest of your life the penalty for trespassing is what he did and that is that he actually got he pled guilty to it went to jail I think yeah that's a suspended sentence for part of it but I think you spent some time in jail but the point is that there are legal remedies and and and punishments for that that makes sense but they're doled out by the government not doled out by you the homeowner and again if someone breaks into your house and your home you have the right to defend yourself and as I pointed out and I just know she's still here all Betsy here my civil war sword mentioned her in a previous episode if you come into my house and I'm forced to use that in self-defense I will and I did enjoy it and I would with a straight face tell the police guy broke in tried to kill me I defended myself sorry I made such a mess but it's my house I'll clean it up and that's how that goes but the idea of a spring gun trap down whatever you want to call it also has a problem with what we call public policy there's a major reason I have not addressed yet as to why trap gun spring guns other booby traps are unadvisable and are illegal in most states and it's simply this if you booby trap a house anybody entering the house for whatever reason could get injured killed and you say so what's my property your house catches on fire and someone calls the fire department fireman goes up kicks in the front door boom gets blasted in the face with a spring gun that was put there to keep the teenage boys from breaking in who'd been breaking in there last week so you could have a situation with a fireman you could have somebody driving down the road your car breaks down it's raining out and it's cold out and they're on the verge of death and they decide to break into the house too getting out of the elements you might say Steve they're not allowed to do that well you know something they might do it and say I'm gonna I'm going to pay the cost I'm willing I'm willing to pay for the dry break and I'm willing to go to jail for trespassing if it saves my life and there have been examples of people who broken into cabins out in the woods and they got caught in a blizzard and you break into the cabin and next thing you know you get your head blown off and so the public policy is that we don't want people booby trapping houses where there's nobody there to assure that the right person gets shot so in case you're curious I'm just gonna read you one from Michigan but most states have got these now just type in the phrase the name of your state plus spring gun or trap device or trap gun and it's MC l75 0.236 setting spring guns etc any person who shall set any spring or other gun or any trap or device operating by the firing or explosion of gunpowder or any other explosive and shall leave or permit the same to be left except in the immediate presence of a competent person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor at the very least a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not more than a year or by fine if not more than $500 so you go well you know that's a debt to risk I'll take and the killing of any person by the firing of a gun or device so set shall be manslaughter so if you get caught simply setting it just setting it okay it's a crime you can go to jail for a year if the gun goes off and kill somebody it's manslaughter but the bigger problem you're gonna have is when the gun goes off and you don't kill that person the lawsuit is gonna get ugly you're gonna lose like the guy in Iowa and it's not good now I'm not saying I'm advocating for the right to break into people's homes and I'm I'm not saying that I don't sympathize or empathize with the people who want to protect their property you know I've dealt with bad people before I've worked at businesses where people broke in I mean I it's it's annoying it's frightening and and I think they should throw the books at people booking people especially the ones who break into homes I think I think there's something you know as a sanctity to your home someone breaks into your home they need to do jail time at least you should never be allowed to say oh we're gonna just slap you on the wrist for that no you break me some home it should be automatic jails the length of time we're discussing here but you know can you set a deadly trap for somebody it sounds like fun it it seems like it might be something you're driven to but as I point out it's contrary to the law and if you do it and it hurts somebody you could go to jail and you can get sued by the person who got shot and think about the irony there that's where it really gets ugly the idea that you set this trap someone broke into your home and they're suing you and they're getting money from you that should be enough motivation or you say you know something it sounds like a stupid idea so no you cannot booby trap your buildings your homes unless you are there to babysit the booby trap in which case why don't you just do it like a man and either break your civil war sword if you got one for just grab whatever you got nearby and second amendment the person right out of your life questions your comments put them below otherwise talk to you later bye you

Channel: Steve Lehto

Views: 168,426

Rating: 4.8290215 out of 5

Keywords: lemon law, michigan lemon law, lemon law lawyer, lemon law attorney, http://www.lehtoslaw.com

Id: SCLNgoVWypI

Length: 17min 38sec (1058 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/hastur777]

No, that’s illegal.

[u/IronMaskx]

Short answer: No

[u/glennjersey]

No. Katko v. Briney already decided this.

Source: passed torts a while ago.

[u/perkited]

I have electrified bars on my windows to keep the cows out.

[u/scoot23ro]

make sure your booby trap will kill them so they can't sue you! LoL