It’s already been pointed out, but the cite said:
If you place a food substance that you know to be tainted in a position of human accessibility, you are breaking the law. It does not matter if the tainted food is subsequently borrowed, found, stolen, given away, or whatever. You have knowingly PUT tainted food in a position of human accessibility. You have broken this law.
Give up now, I’m begging you.
He’s already argued that the common area of a dorm is not humanly accessible. How he could make that argument with a straight face is beyond me.
But let’s try a different tack. Suppose I poison a few bottles of Tylenol and sneak them onto store shelves around the country. A little old lady, on her fixed income, shoplifts a bottle, takes it home, pops some pills, and dies. Does that mean I have clean hands? Hey, she’s a thief and should have known better. And besides I was only poisoning my own Tylenol. My property, mine to do with as I please.
Dio’s got the right on this one. Neither hot sauce, nor ex-lax are poisons or harmful substances. They are widely marked food products and edibles. This armchair lawyering is retarded, and an example of everything that is completely screwed up with our culture at the moment. What if the thief has an unknown allergy to blue cheese and goes into anaphalaxis when they steal my black and bleu burgers? Sheesh.
Let’s examine the etc.'s though:
Rat poison? Definitely in 3.
Exlax? Is it noxious or deleterious? I guess that’s arguable either way.
Habaneros? Are they noxious or deleterious? Millions of people eat them all the time. If the law is such that putting habanero sauce in ice cream and putting it in the freezer is illegal, then putting it in a sandwich and putting it in the community fridge would be just as illegal. I’d have a tough time saying that put an actual food substance in another food, even in a way designed to catch a thief, would actually be in violation of this law.
Oh and a simple google search will get you hundreds of recipes for habenero ice cream.
What if you know the thief has just such an allergy and you purposely concealed the bleu cheese in the burger in the hopes that he’d have an adverse reaction?
Huge difference there.
prove it.
Are you making the argument that you really did intend to send the guy into anaphalaxis but no court will convict you?
Nice.
No, I’m making the argument that you have to prove an intent to poison, to do dangerous bodily harm to someone. If I knew of the thief’s allergy and suspected him of stealing then slipped some in his stored food as revenge, then I’d certainly be guilty. If I put something many people find unpleasant but perfectly edible in MY OWN FOOD, which he steals and then becomes ill from, it is hardly my fault. It is his for stealing and consuming food that does not belong to him and is from an unknown source.
Hot sauce and ex-lax aren’t poisons.
I came in to correct bullshit. There is no law against putting habaneros in your own food. Sorry.
You did not put in a place of human accessibility. You stored it privately and it was stolen. Everybody else is full of shit on this one, not me.
He’ s making the argument that it’s impossible to prove. Moreover, the retard killed himself by stealing and eating food withoutnknowing what was in it. No jury would convict. No prosecutor would even charge.
Thanks for clearing that up.
If I put peanut butter on my own hamburger and someone with peanut allergies stole it, then that’s one thing. Would a reasonable person put peanut butter on a hamburger? Sure, it could happen. Some people have weird tastes in food.
What if you put peanut butter on his burger? That’s most certainly wrong, though I doubt illegal.
But would you put Ex-lax on your burger? Would a reasonable person do that? No. For one thing, it’s not a food. It may not be a poison, but it’s a medication designed to alter the function of a person’t digestive tract. It serves no other purpose. It doesn’t taste delicious (I’m guessing).
If the guy is a known food thief, and you put medication in your own food and put it where the thief is likely to take it, your intention is clear – you plan on medicating the guy.
Not legally accessible, no. You have a right to expect that your possessions will not be accessed illegally.
There are bulemics who use Ex-Lax liberally as a means of purging.
You need to prove an intention with more than just an assertion.
Actually, and I’m being dead serious, Ex-Lax tastes quite good. Like a chocolate bar.
Right. Anywhere you put food is by definition accessible to humans. You accessed it, didn’t you? Food on my kitchen counter is accessible to humans. Food in a locked box at my campsite is accessible to humans. Food in my refrigerator is accessible to humans. If someone breaks into my house, raids my fridge, and then gets sick, am I really to blame?
Prove it.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Buy a pint of Haagen Daaz ice cream. Eat it, save the package. Then buy some cheapo brand diet ice cream and put it in the Haagen Daaz container and put it in the communal freezer. The asshole who starts complaining about lousy Haagen Daaz is the culprit.
Once you know who the culprit is, get a mylar mailing envelope. Fill it with whipping cream (shaving cream is for wimps). Slide the open end under the door and then stomp on the filled end so that whipping cream covers the culprit’s room on the inside. Repeat until you are out of whipping cream. Slide the flattened Haagen Daaz container under the door so they know why you did it. Hours later when they return from class it will stink. Cover outside of doorknob with honey.
The Second Stone, college graduate.
Jesus, does anyone read my posts?
First, people are saying it’s illegal. What you do can be illegal even if it can’t be proven that you did it. They are separate (though related) issues.
Second, it is perfectly possible to prove intent. Contrary to what you may believe, a jury does not need a notarized affidavit from you stating your intent to find that you intended something. Sure it is not certain that this crime would be punished, but it is completely possible.