I don’t know the in-and-out legalities of every state, but someone once told me that booby traps, even those established well in the bounds of one’s private property, are largely off the table. I haven’t looked it up since then- I try not to use my phone when I’m driving- but this fact was delivered with the surety of a professional party-pooper and, though I had no real plans to set traps up myself (or any piece of property for those traps to protect) I was a little disappointed. Even more disappointing was my understanding that, having survived a booby-trap, an erstwhile victim might sue the creator of the traps. Meaning there is monetary gain to be had from entering and surviving a booby trap.
It feels like that goes against the point.
‘Willow Lake’ seems to think that proper signage will mitigate any lawsuits resulting from their ‘tradition,’ but I suspect that the only surefire defense is a great deal of money for settling cases out of court (though not as much money asked in the lawsuit itself). It’s hard to find a sympathetic jury when it’s kids who are drowning.
‘Long before images of the eerie geometrical ice patterns began to make to make the news and long before the quick publicity pivot that seemed to suggest the patterns had been the intent all along, there was this idea for a manmade hot spring. A hot lake. A hot lake where residents of the highly exclusive ‘Willow Lake’ community could soak or steam in the winter months- could watch little clouds rising from the surface of the water from their bedroom windows and enclosed balconies.
But it’s hard to heat that much water and to keep it heated without some sort of insulating cover. As the first round of cold months made the water inhabitable and as haphazard suggestions that ice plunges were, in fact, very trendy fell on deaf ears, the lake started to freeze.
But it didn’t freeze totally.
The windblown surface of the water developed a crystal skin that captured air patterns in its formation. It was beautiful and fleeting. No pattern remained for long before a sudden gust broke the ice and remade the surface. It was more entertaining and far more unique than the original hot spring idea had been and so the very-wealthy residents were comforted.
Then two children, a brother and a sister, fell through the ice and drowned. They had been visiting their grandparents (residents of Willow Lake) and were promised ice skating by their parents, who had misunderstood the situation entirely and, upon hearing of the thin ice, had forbidden them from going anywhere near it (an action that seemed to have catalyzed their intent).
These children were the first of many. Kids loved the lake and no matter how many signs the operators of ‘Willow Lake’ put up, the kids either wouldn’t heed the warnings. Rumors spread of a ‘daring’ game. A game of how far out someone could get into the lake without falling in. Worse, rumors spread of a deep apathy among ‘Willow Lake’ residents. The HOA, in particular, had been skeptical of the signage at the start, fearing it would undermine the simple aesthetic of the community and prove to be controversial among residents who feared having their rights- any of their rights- taken away or limited by third parties.
Betting pools formed between people of a certain child-hating sub-community, these people generally having become too angry and tired by the world to see or interact with children in any way, or being so traumatized by the reciprocal bad treatment by their own children, that they were willing to make a game of the ongoing tragedies.
The patterns at ‘Willow Lake’ remain, and so does the signage. Little else has changed about the situation and some fear we have witnessed the rise of some child-killing cult. Though no proof of this has yet made circulation, religions have formed around less interesting premises.’
-traveler
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