Consider this video, in which the camera operator has leaned a bicycle against a fence, unlocked. The occasional passer-by says “hey, free bike,” and hops aboard; only after coasting downhill and building up considerable speed does the thief realize that:
A) the brakes have been disabled, and
B) there is a 40’ rope anchoring the bike to its original location.
When the bike reaches the end of the rope, it stops very suddenly, launching the rider violently over the handlebars. The video shows several bike thieves meeting this fate.
Question: does this fall under the legal category of man traps? Can the camera operator be held liable for injuries sustained by someone who stole his bike?
IANAL … Yes … the person booby-traped the bike with the intent to cause bodily harm … that is a crime … and criminals are liable for the harm caused by their crimes …
It would be tough to prove intent (easy to infer it). So i’m not sure the criminal charges bit would work. But… it would be much easier to win a civil lawsuit.
…And how they managed to get half a dozen takers in less than two minutes. Things that make you go hmmm, amiright? It’s almost like watching “Cops,” where they consistently manage to get into a violent encounter or high-speed chase every seven minutes. :dubious:
:smack: It’s an edited video. What you’re not seeing are the dozens of pedestrians who didn’t even consider stealing the bike, or the ones who considered it but did see the rope. Leave the bike there long enough, and you’ll encounter a thief who doesn’t notice the rope.
The comments on the video are pretty incriminating. They apparently “reset” the bait after each crash. Until the bike broke.
I see a potential civil case for injuries.
It is disheartening to see a bicycle so casually stolen. I remember visiting friends houses and parking my bike in the driveway. It was never stolen. That wouldn’t work today.
The video is obviously edited to only show the people that took the bait. They probably filmed for several hours.
Every time I’ve read about someone setting up any kind of booby trap to “automatically” injure a person who they assumed were committing a crime, they were held responsible for the injuries, and punished with at least heavy fines.
If nothing else, the way the law works in the US is, that you are NOT allowed to decide who has committed a crime, or how a criminal is to be punished, which is what you are doing when you set something like that up.
Those guys are idiots. In the video that auto-played after the one from the OP, they rigged remotely-controlled airbags to the bike seat (and in one case on a moped seat) and they are bound to seriously hurt someone sooner or later.
The videos are almost certainly staged (for example, you can see in a couple of instances the person reacts before they start to fall) and the people in them are paid to do it. Kind of like “Hobo Fights”. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were homeless which makes what they’re doing even more disgusting.
That’s exactly some of the additional evidence this is staged. These guys would have gotten beaten to death or shot by now. You’re sitting there filming it, there’s a clearly setup crash and then you’re filming it and laughing? Yeah, that’s going to get a reaction, but they don’t show the reaction. I wonder why? The answer is because there isn’t one because the thief/victim is in on it.
Definitive proof? No, of course not. But I’ve seen enough of these staged videos that it gets the bull-o-meter tingling.
An awful lot of people are (A) idiots, (B) completely unobservant of what goes on around them, or (C) both. Even for people who are relatively observant, in many cases their “field of noticeability” extends only a few yards. Film them from 10 feet away, and they’ll probably notice. Film them from 50 feet, and they won’t.
I find it entirely believable that some people wouldn’t notice the rope. Anybody who finds it unbelievable has never studied human nature.
Yeah I did notice that two out of three managed to throw their arm in front of their head to avoid serious injury. The last guy, hard to tell if his backpack managed to cushion his head. Still dangerous as hell.
Those Twins videos, along with ____ Salads (not gonna use their real names and bring any attention here).
There’s a youtube channel that does a really good job debunking the videos, mostly because they don’t always do a good job staging them.
They reuse actors, you can catch them setting up for one scene in the background of the next, “victims” talking to the camera guys etc.
You can find a lot of it here.
Agree with other posters that they are totally fake.
If they were not then they would 100% liable civilly and criminally. That would absolutely mean being guilty of assault and battery, as it would clearly count as a booby trap.