The house shot him. The court sided with him.Nobody feels good about what happened next.Can you booby trap your house? This episode of the Stupiracy podcast answers that question with one of the most infamous weird legal cases in American history.After years of break-ins at an abandoned farmhouse, one homeowner decided locks weren’t enough.So he built a shotgun booby trap.Not near the door. Not as a warning.Directly wired to it.Enter Marvin Katko—a guy who thought an empty house meant free antiques and zero consequences.He opens a door.The house shoots him.And then—because this is history gone wrong—he sues.This is the Katko v. Briney case, a piece of crazy true history where public opinion said “obviously the homeowner wins,” and the court said:“Absolutely not.”We break down:Why booby trap laws exist (and why they’re strict)The difference between self-defense and what is basically revenge engineeringHow this bizarre case still shapes home defense laws todayWhy “trespassers will be shot” is legally meaninglessBecause the law makes one thing very clear:You can defend yourself.You cannot turn your property into a surprise weapon.Even if someone is absolutely, undeniably doing something dumb.It’s part bizarre history, part courtroom chaos, and part realizing Home Alone would’ve ended in multiple felony charges.And somehow… this is still happening.This is Stupiracy. Presented by CARSTAR – your auto body repair experts – locally owned with a nationwide guarantee.Follow Stupiracy for more dark history, ridiculous facts, and stories where people confidently make the worst possible decision.Or don’t.But if you don’t subscribe, we are forced to assume you think a shotgun-on-a-string is a “security system,” and legally speaking… that puts all of us in a very complicated position. This episode covers spring loaded stupidity: you can’t booby trap your way out of the law. The weird case of Katko v. Briney. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.