Booby Traps

[CalMeacham]

"Booby traps" showed up on my Dave Barry desk calendar yesterday, so I idly typed it into my search engine. I got a Wikipedia article, an Aussie company that sells make-'em-yourself bras (and covers the double-entendre requirement), and...this site:


http://www.geo-outdoors.info/booby_traps.htm



This site seems weird.

As an outdoor researcher, your greatest chance of coming across a booby trap lies within the odds of your stumbling into a marijuana plantation or some other area that a hostile individual or group wishes to keep exclusive.

Though it is unlikely you will ever encounter a booby trap, they are becoming more common -- especially in the southwestern US. Sadly, national and state parks are NOT immune to this growing problem. With the above in mind, it is perhaps wise to at least have some idea of what booby traps are, where they are found, how they work and how to deal with them.

Booby traps becoming common in the Southwest US? Even in National Parks? Here's something I never learned about in Boy Scouts, or even when I was hiing and camping out in the southwest years ago.

And would a drug operation really put booby traps on US park land? Wouldn't that be a greay way to draw attention to that area, rather than keeping people away? (What do you do if you come across or trip a booby trap? You tell the Rangers. No trap can be counted on to be 100% lethal.)


The site also includes things like "Poison Parsnip", which I've not heard of, either. A quick internet search corroborates the plant's irritation properties, although just about everyone else calls it simply "wild parsnip".



Anyone else heard about the recent rash of booby traps? Or parsnips?

[Diceman]

I suppose that a national park has the advantage of being an unexpected location for your weed patch. Remember, many national parks are freakin' huge, with the tourist-y area being only a small part of that park.

[CalMeacham]

I suppose that a national park has the advantage of being an unexpected location for your weed patch. Remember, many national parks are freakin' huge, with the tourist-y area being only a small part of that park.

Yeah, but why put up booby traps that could bring unwanted attention to your stash, and possibly leave clues to your identity, and possibly get you charged with endangerment in addition to drug charges? It'd be safer to not put up booby traps.

Not that anyone protecting their stash woukld necessarily think logically.

[Scoundrel Swanswater]

I heard about an uprise in boobytraps in homegrowers.
This because a lot of them get robbed just before they are ready to harvest.
The fire department, who normally is the first to enter, isn't to happy about them.
This far it has mostly consisted of electrified doorknops and trapdoors.
(Sorry, no cite)

[welby]

Ooooooh.

This thread isn't what I though it would be.


Carry on.

[Diceman]

Originally Posted by Scoundrel Swanswater

I heard about an uprise in boobytraps in homegrowers.
This because a lot of them get robbed just before they are ready to harvest.

That makes sense. I served jury duty on a case where a guy was robbed and murdered for his dope. This was apparently a drug deal gone bad, however, not a burglary.

Another advantage for the national park is that if the cops do find it, there's less chance that the grower will get busted. If they find it in his basement, he's SOL.

[ZipperJJ]

Originally Posted by Scoundrel Swanswater

I heard about an uprise in boobytraps in homegrowers.
This because a lot of them get robbed just before they are ready to harvest.
The fire department, who normally is the first to enter, isn't to happy about them.
This far it has mostly consisted of electrified doorknops and trapdoors.
(Sorry, no cite)

That was a good poem.