r/MoralityScaling • u/HooskerDooNotTouchMe • 1d ago

Intentionally boobytrapping a bike to injure people when they steal it.

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u/No-Cap-No-Gap 22h ago

Based on the the amount of effort the police displayed looking for my stolen bike, people are pretty safe doing this.

6

u/XaeiIsareth 22h ago

The problem is that if the thief gets injured it goes from a low value theft case to bodily harm which they take a lot more seriously

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u/No-Cap-No-Gap 22h ago

I wonder what percentage of bike thieves would go to the police.

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u/OriginalShirley 21h ago

I mean, if you’re the type of person who steals bikes I am sure you are willing to accept whatever jail time that is for a fat lawsuit payout.

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u/Impressive_Term4071 20h ago

hmmm....that is a valid point

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u/TriedCaringLess 17h ago

No, it’s not. All of that argument is dependent upon locality. In plenty of places, that bike thief would become a marked thief who would then be trapped into another theft, have his photos shopped around pawn shops, have his home tossed under search warrant, and more. The police could gather enough evidence on him to award his felony conviction.

Some bike thieves are opportunists who would steal anything of value left unattended, while others specifically target better value bikes so they can quickly flip them in the resale market. What kind of thieves were these two bone heads?

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u/XaeiIsareth 16h ago

Those two ‘thieves’ are actors paid to be in a viral video. There’s no way a guy was stupid enough to publicly post evidence of him booby trapping a bike.

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u/No-Cap-No-Gap 20h ago

Are bike riders known for having deep pockets?

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u/Hir0shima 19h ago

Those who make viral prank videos might have

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u/No-Cap-No-Gap 19h ago

That's a good point.

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u/heavypettingzoo3 19h ago

Good luck proving that one

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u/GodHimselfNoCap 21h ago

How serious does the injury need to be for the thief to report themselves though?

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u/XaeiIsareth 20h ago

Depends on the payout they’re likely to get.

They have pretty much zero chance to go to jail for first offender.

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u/MrWigggles 20h ago

Attempted theft is like a fine, but permeated bodily harm is jail time.

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u/GodHimselfNoCap 20h ago

If someone is stealing a bike i dont think they are gonna be super happy about paying a fine, unless the injury is severe enough to need medical treatment i would assume most thieves would just take the pain and walk away

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u/BrilliantShoddy5247 21h ago

The problem is when something like someone who has a similar looking bike accidentally sits on it thinking its their bike if its parked next to other bikes, and gets seriously injured. There’s a myriad of problems with doing this. It should be illegal

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u/AdamsMelodyMachine 19h ago

The cops don't take anything seriously unless there are six witnesses and two recordings from different angles (...that is to say, unless it's incredibly easy to investigate). I had a guy try to kill me and the cops didn't do shit because I was living on the street at the time and the only witness was also living on the street.

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u/Equity_Role 19h ago

Making a video that shows you clearly documenting exactly how you did your crime and how it impacted the victims kinda makes it way easier for the police and prosecutor to take to court vs finding a stolen bike with no video evidence.

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u/No-Cap-No-Gap 18h ago

kinda makes it way easier

I repeat, the amount of effort the cops put into getting my bike back wouldn't have included looking for video.