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Comment by wgerard | Hacker News Reader

My guess is this falls under the same purview as booby-trapping your house: Yeah, they're committing a felony by breaking into your house, but you're not allowed to setup a "Home Alone" defense system (if nothing else because first responders might need to get into your home).

It's dumb in this case because the "booby trap" likely isn't one at all, but at a very cursory glance I could buy that someone would make their lunch exceptionally spicy to thwart a would-be thief - in the same vein that people might suggest laxatives, etc.

Anyway, I'm surprised people don't just have locked lunchboxes or something like that.

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Exactly how I read it.

Except it wasn't a booby trap. It's like a thief complaining because they crashed the car they stole from you.

Good example.

Another more similar example is if the thief had a food allergy, say peanuts, and they stole a meal containing peanuts and got sick. I don't think most judges would argue that people need to ensure their meals can be eaten by anyone.

Though some schools do ban all peanut products for lunch. I am not a lawyer, obviously.

> It's like a thief complaining because they crashed the car they stole from you.

To take this further: It's a bit like they crashed the stolen car because you cut the brake lines in anticipation of someone stealing it (a bit extreme obviously, but just bear with me).

Which is interesting: I actually wonder whether you would be found at least civilly liable in that instance.

Not really. Spiciness isn't at all at the same level as cut brake lines, and it wasn't done in anticipation of anything

It's more like you have a manual transmission, and your thief crashed because they only know an automatic.

If you think you need a locked lunchbox, then what you really need is a job with better coworkers.

Eh, there are plenty of excellent workplaces with just a few bad actors who do stuff like steal lunches.

Changing your job in response to someone stealing your lunch seems a little extreme.

Is it illegal to booby trap your property?

It is very illegal. Like, violating the Geneva Conventions level illegal:

https://definitions.uslegal.com/b/booby-traps/

It's true that booby traps are not allowed by the Geneva convention but that convention only applies to conduct in a war. I'm curious what law applies in the US.

I imagine the castle doctrine would apply. Kevin McCallister could have justifiably killed the burglars in Home Alone. It was actually rather nice of him to just use non-lethal booby traps.

The Geneva part was a bit of a joke.

The laws vary by state, some allow you to use traps as long as they don't cause serious harm, while others don't let you use them at all. No state allows you to set a lethal booby trap.

Here is the California law about them: https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2005/pen/12355.html

A civilian booby trapping their lunch in a non-wartime setting is not a Geneva Conventions violation level of illegal.

The question was about booby traps on your property in general, not about food.

Yes. The basic idea is that you cannot do via a trap what you couldn't do in person, which I think is sensible. If you are not allowed to shoot someone who merely sets foot on your property, then you are also not allowed to rig a shotgun to a tripwire that does the same thing.

The relevant case is Katko v. Briney.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katko_v._Briney

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