Is it Legal to Create a Shocking Pickpocket Trap for Tourists in High-Theft Areas?
#safety #pickpocketing #tourist #legal #ethical
Have you ever wondered if it’s okay to set up a device in your backpack or purse to shock pickpocketers who try to steal from you in busy tourist spots? Is it legal to give them a non-lethal but very painful shock to expose their theft attempts and attract attention? Let’s dive into the legality and ethics of this electrifying idea.
### The Legal and Ethical Implications
– Is it legal to set up a trap for pickpocketers using electrocution?
– What are the consequences if someone gets hurt by your shocking device?
– How would law enforcement react to this kind of vigilante justice?
– Could there be ethical concerns regarding using pain as a deterrent for theft?
### Considerations for Implementing the Shocking Trap
– How would you ensure the safety of innocent bystanders who might come into contact with your device?
– What measures can you take to prevent accidental shocks or harms?
– Are there other, more humane ways to deter pickpocketers without resorting to pain?
– What impact could this trap have on the overall safety and security of the area?
By examining these questions and considerations, you can make an informed decision about whether creating a painful pickpocket trap is a legal, ethical, and effective measure in high-theft tourist areas. Remember to always prioritize safety, legality, and human rights in your pursuit of justice.
Booby traps are illegal in the US, including non-lethal electric traps. The only thing you can hook up to a trigger is an alarm.
Some stores sell gag phones and other shock devices as a toy. I find it hard to believe it would be problematic to use one of those as a decoy when on vacation.
If they had a heart issue and your device caused them to have a heart attack or something, I could see the potential for your being found liable or even guilty of manslaughter. If the device is designed to protect your belongings without necessarily causing harm, maybe fine, but if the device is designed specifically to inflict harm on a person, that’s where you run into trouble, I think. I’m not a lawyer, though.
Bad idea. The legality would be very questionable since sure, it wouldn’t be an average lethal shock and a painful one, but little did you know the person you just shocked had heart problems and now you’re being charged with involuntary manslaughter. It’s along the lines of why boobytraps are very illegal, you just never know.
Just do what literally everyone else does and get a chain or a fake wallet to put in your back pocket and store your actual wallet somewhere safer.
Maybe you enjoy the thrill of carrying cocked and locked rat traps in your pack and pocket as a memory game? A game of “Where did I put it?” Not your fault if someone decides to join your one player game, when you did not ask.
Unfortunately isn’t.
It should be.
Legality is going to depend on where you are.
In the UK, you cannot carry *anything* which is *specifically* for the purposes of self-defence.
If you had such a trap on your person, and for whatever reason it was found when you are searched by a police officer, you would absolutely need to have a reasonable explanation as to why. If it’s a device specifically and solely intended to injure someone, that would be illegal.
The classic advice for UK self-defence is to improvise. Perfectly legally to carry an umbrella, even on a sunny day. It rains a lot here, plus it gives shade if it gets really hot. The fact that you could injure someone in a multitude of ways with one is entirely coincidental.
(There’s a bunch of other laws governing firearms, knives and other weapons which override this, so the argument that you’re carrying your mall-ninja katana to your Katana Appreciation Society isn’t going to fly either!)
No, its illegal because that’s a mantrap
It is illegal to purposefully attempt to harm another person unless it is in self-defense
It is also illegal to try and “lure” people into a trap.
No, the “but he shouldn’t pit his hand in there” excuse does not hold up in court
That said, IIRC its not illegal to put up stuff that doesn’t hurt people but i think its still illegal to try and bait people.
So:
putting a glue patch in your pocket against pickpockets – not illegal
Putting a glue patch in your pockets and making a stack of cash hang out on purpose so you get pickpocketed = illegal (I think)
Also: what is the pickpocket has a pacemaker? That shock could kill him and you’d be on the hook for manslaughterbecause you created a device with the specific intent to shock someone and therefore are responsible for the consequences.
There is a very good reason why we don’t have security systems that electrocute burglars, think about it, if it were legal, everyone would have deadly or harmful anti-burglary systems at work and at home.
There actually was a brief period where it wasn’t illegal and you could get stuff like explosive locks (they’d explode whe tampered with) and doors/windows that electrocuted burglars but they were made illegal after a while.
So you know, do it at your own risk.
As in most things, check your local laws.
It’s illegal in many places to put laxatives in foods in places like an office fridge (to prank someone stealing food.)
Put this question in a sub that relates to where you live.
I don’t know about legal, but I would think about ethics. It’s not long ago that a kid who couldn’t be more than 4 put his hand in my pocket. I have no doubt he was being trained to steal, but that wasn’t his fault.
Just keep your wallet safe and secured so they can’t steal it. No reason to act like a vigilante.
I heard fishing is pretty fun, what about a bunch of replacement tri barbs in your fishing pocket?
No, that would constitute a booby trap which are illegal.
The problem with booby traps is that they don’t discriminate. You could very well hurt people, that are not trying to pickpocket you.
You could be searched by the police, if your unconscious medical personnel might open your bags, someone falls and instinctively grabs your bag, etc.
That being said, even if you’re hypothetically able to have a booby trap, that can by it’s very nature only hurt pickpocketers, it would still not be legal, because you would intentionelly hurt people.
Probably heavily depends on the country and the laws in the area, but pretty sure at least in the USA there’s laws against booby trapping, even if its only intent is to get criminals
Really depends on the country. It would not be legal in Belgium and likely neither in some other European countries.
Booby traps are generally illegal
Not in any jurisdiction I’ve been in. But your likelihood of being prosecuted is very low
Just put your stuff in some secure pockets bro
My friend puts her used lunch wrappers in her backpack and the pickpockets kindly steal her garbage every evening on her way home.
No, as long as you don’t admit to putting it in there to cause someone else injury
Its not like theyre gonna press charges. “So i was trying to pickpocket him and got a shock”
You could possibly kill someone depending on their health and the trap. Very sketchy overall
next thing you know someone will forget about the booby trap in their backpack and their kid at home will accidentally set it off.
if people can forget they have live ammunition in their suitcase then they can forget the set a booby trap in their backpack.