Yikes

[trailrunner]

We have had a couple of incidents like this around here.

For a while, someone was sticking nails in logs in Wakefield to catch mountain bikers. I think they finally caught the person (or persons).

During one winter about 15 years ago, I was out for a morning run on the Bull Run-Occoquan trail. I was probably the first person on the trail that morning. I started at Fountainhead, and just past the 2 mile marker, there is a small, dense grove of small pine trees that crowded the trail as it went up a small rise. I just happened to look up the hill at trail, and noticed something strange. Somebody had taken fishing line and criss-crossed it across the trail at ankle level. This wasn’t some lost fishing line that blew away from the pier (which was a long way away) and got tangled — this was deliberately set, tensioned, and tied off. I don’t know if it was intended for runners and hikers, or for the horses that are allowed on the trail, but it could have been nasty either way. I tore it all apart and reported it when I got home. I felt fortunate that I just happened to see it.

[Sunyata]

Yeah, this kind of stuff is done out on MTB trails in the area on a regular basis. It really sucks that someone would be so angry about cyclists on trails that they would set traps like these. One of the incidents up in Frederick put someone in the hospital for several weeks.

[Steve O]

@Sunyata 190357 wrote:

Yeah, this kind of stuff is done out on MTB trails in the area on a regular basis. It really sucks that someone would be so angry about cyclists on trails that they would set traps like these. One of the incidents up in Frederick put someone in the hospital for several weeks.

I always wonder if, when the perpetrator reads about the injury they caused to someone, they feel remorse. Or at least feel stupid about what they’ve done.
The story was big in Colorado Springs, so the perp must have seen it. Did he (she? unlikely) realize he put a 69-year-old in the hospital and not feel awful about it? Once the little fun and games becomes real, with an actual person, it must feel different. Or maybe not. I don’t know.

[drevil]

@Sunyata 190357 wrote:

Yeah, this kind of stuff is done out on MTB trails in the area on a regular basis. It really sucks that someone would be so angry about cyclists on trails that they would set traps like these. One of the incidents up in Frederick put someone in the hospital for several weeks.

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/razor-blade-booby-traps-found-in-frederick-watershed/article_4a04f7f8-9f00-566e-acc3-5b2b4f7531d1.html

[ChristoB50]

@Steve O 190372 wrote:

I always wonder if, when the perpetrator reads about the injury they caused to someone, they feel remorse. Or at least feel stupid about what they’ve done.
The story was big in Colorado Springs, so the perp must have seen it. Did he (she? unlikely) realize he put a 69-year-old in the hospital and not feel awful about it? Once the little fun and games becomes real, with an actual person, it must feel different. Or maybe not. I don’t know.

Dunno — I’m probably cynical here but I feel like if you are sufficiently removed “from baseline normalcy” to the point that you willfully set out to build and deploy hidden razor blade traps in public areas (which you designed to at least inflict damage, and perhaps to harm) there’s probably an increased chance you’re also sufficiently removed from, or desensitized to, a normal response of remorse.

[baiskeli]

@trailrunner 190341 wrote:

We have had a couple of incidents like this around here.

For a while, someone was sticking nails in logs in Wakefield to catch mountain bikers. I think they finally caught the person (or persons).

During one winter about 15 years ago, I was out for a morning run on the Bull Run-Occoquan trail. I was probably the first person on the trail that morning. I started at Fountainhead, and just past the 2 mile marker, there is a small, dense grove of small pine trees that crowded the trail as it went up a small rise. I just happened to look up the hill at trail, and noticed something strange. Somebody had taken fishing line and criss-crossed it across the trail at ankle level. This wasn’t some lost fishing line that blew away from the pier (which was a long way away) and got tangled — this was deliberately set, tensioned, and tied off. I don’t know if it was intended for runners and hikers, or for the horses that are allowed on the trail, but it could have been nasty either way. I tore it all apart and reported it when I got home. I felt fortunate that I just happened to see it.

Someone was putting tacks on the Mt. Vernon Trail a while back:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/07/19/tacks-still-a-concern-on-bike-trail/acfe1f83-1d41-42cf-842c-81b7a7051cf4/?utm_term=.dc62f591183c

[huskerdont]

One of the characteristics of psychopathy is limited to no empathy or remorse. We have examples of that all around us, though we may not always recognize it since most of us cannot imagine that people could be that way.

[Sunyata]

@Steve O 190372 wrote:

Did he (she? unlikely) realize he put a 69-year-old in the hospital and not feel awful about it?

Not sure about the Colorado incident, but a woman was charged and convicted for setting traps for two years in Vancouver.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/she-was-aware-someone-could-be-seriously-hurt-b-c-woman-guilty-of-bike-trail-sabotage

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