Correct. “Man traps” are generally illegal, even on your own property.

Booby trapping your property with explosives would likely result in felony charges.  Just follow Mark Rober’s lead and make some stink/glitter bomb packages.

Yeah. Despite what Hollywood tells us, petty theft is not a capital offense. I absolutely understand the frustration, but also this dude is going to lose way more than an Amazon package.

$30,000 in damage to save a $20 Etsy necklace! Huzzah!

Crowdfunding is a thing and there are risks involved. I sort of agree with you, but they took down a bunch of people who really should have known better. It’s not like this was craven payday loans with unbearable interest exploiting the most desperate. These were toys for people who’ll drop a million on something…

Sounds like they were crowdfunding the company.

It’s like crowdfunding for obscenely wealthy people.  Not gonna shed a single tear over this.

DepLorean.

Well with 28% APR, that part makes sense. Your first 2 years is like 95% interest.

My wife saw a post that called it the Deplorian.   I’m still giggling about that one.

I have driven cars from almost every era since the 70's in various conditions and have never once had to tighten an essential bolt like the one that holds the door hinge onto the body.  And ditto on never ever having an issue with a pedal, whether gas, clutch, or brake.  It blows my mind that this is happening on…

an incEl Camino

After 5 years of owning my Mazda 6, it depreciated to half it’s original value. The C40 did the same feat in less than a year.

incEL Camino.

The people who get into these megabad car loans are typically pretty desperate. They need transportation to get to work and for whatever reason don’t have access to better forms of transit. They also don’t have the mechanical skills/knowledge necessary to identify a good cheap cash car.

I get the Mazda one, if you don’t have much credit or bad credit your rate is astronomical and in most of the US a car is a necessity to get to work. He didn’t buy an expensive luxury ride, he bought reasonable older used car. I know a lot of people that went through similar situations and though parts were their…

Yes, cars lose value when you drive them off the lot but not half. EVs lose half their value when you drive them off the lot.

But here’s the thing with the Volvo guy: he only owned it for a few months. Even if he had a 2% interest rate on the loan, the balance wouldn’t have been that much lower.

In this case, it’s the rapid depreciation, not the interest rate, that got him.

“He purchased a Volvo C40 Recharge EV but wanted to get rid of it after only a few months of ownership due to technical problems; the infotainment screen and backup camera would randomly cut out and the car would make a loud screeching noise when reversing.”

I don’t really have much sympathy for the C40 owner. The second guy yes, because most people in poor financial situations would probably not opt for the additional payoff coverage or GAP coverages for auto insurance. But the C40 owner could have researched this first, none of the issues are unknown, as I’m currently…