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This YouTube short video describes a man (let's call him Peter) who has placed Halloween pumpkins at the end of his driveway, only to have the pumpkins intentionally run over by car drivers, so as a booby trap, he places a large concrete-filled pumpkin at the end of his driveway. A driver then drives his car into the pumpkin intentionally, expecting to smash the pumpkin, and instead breaks an axle.

In the above scenario, is Peter liable for damages?

FlanMan
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  • Does this answer your question? Are booby-traps illegal if they don't harm humans? – BlueDogRanch Apr 23 '22 at 14:47
  • The linked question is significantly different, (albeit related) because the nails shown in the image could easily harm a pedestrian, and the tire-blowouts them seem designed to cause could plausibly harm an occupant of a car. The "pumpkins" described here do not fit either of these characteristics. IMO this should not be closed as a duplicate. – David Siegel Apr 23 '22 at 15:37
  • So to crash my car, I have to leave the public road, drive along Peters presumably private driveway right to his house, and then try to destroy his property? – gnasher729 Apr 24 '22 at 07:24
  • Yeah, doesn't this really boil down to: If I damage my own equipment or tools while illegaly trying to damage someone else's property, can I hold the 'someone else' liable for the damage to my equipment? – jarnbjo Apr 24 '22 at 15:50
  • After years of kids taking baseball bats to mailboxes on our street, my next-door neighbor built a replacement out of high-tensile steel used for shipbuilding. The rest of the street never lost a mailbox again. – bdb484 Apr 26 '22 at 01:39

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