Tabachi’s pawn shop is broken into six times in four months. It’s almost as if the burglars’ union selected Tabachi’s business as a piece-of-cake for break-ins. Insurance rates are going through the roof.

Speaking of the roof, that’s how burglars get into Tabachi’s pawn shop. They cut a hole in the flat roof and lower themselves down into the store. Mostly they take cash, guns and electronics, expensive stuff that’s easy to unload on the street market.

Burglar alarms don’t help much. Even when the alarms go off, burglars are gone by the time the cops arrive. That’s why one of Tabachi’s beer-drinking buddies suggests building a booby trap. The buddy even sketches out plans on a bar napkin.

Of course, in most states booby traps are illegal. The reason is plain enough. Rig a shotgun to go off when a door is forced open and it shoots whoever comes in — a burglar, a fireman, a paramedic, a cop — the gun could care less. Guns have absolutely no conscience.

But Tabachi is desperate. From his plans drawn on a paper napkin, he builds a steel grid rigged with springs. The trap is wired with 220-volt lines. It’s designed using springs so that a weight of 75 pounds or more will close electrical contacts. Tabachi figures that whoever is on the electrically charged grid will fry their way into bad-guy history.

Four nights after Tabachi installs the booby trap it’s sprung by an unsuspecting burglar who has already spent half of his life in prison. The guy fries right there on the home-made grid. That went exactly according to Tabachi’s plan, right?

Months later, a jury finds Tabachi "not guilty" of homicide. He is overjoyed until a few weeks later, he’s served with civil papers.

In a "wrongful death" lawsuit a jury finds for the burglar’s widow. The award goes to nearly seven figures. Tabachi doesn’t have that kind of money. He loses his wife, his business, his home, and he no longer drinks beer with the buddy who drew up the original plans for the booby trap on a paper napkin.