Man uses catapult to deter burglars (but is burgled anyway).

My favorite parts in bold. From Ananova:

A Nottinghamshire businessman who set up a 30ft dung-firing catapult to deter intruders has been burgled after police warned him it was illegal.

Joe Weston-Webb, 71, a former travelling showman, decided he needed the deterrent after a series of break-ins, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The catapult, based on a Roman boulder-thrower, was originally built for a series of unsuccessful attempts to fire his wife, Mary, across the River Avon in 1976.

Mr Weston-Webb settled for a career in business after designing a type of click-together wooden flooring which earned him contracts with hotels and the entertainment industry, including the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

But following a series of attacks by vandals on his company, Grumpy Joe, in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, he restored the rusty catapult and equipped it to fire bags of chicken droppings at intruders if an alarm was triggered.

His eccentric methods attracted media attention as well as a warning from Nottinghamshire Police that using the giant catapult would be illegal as it did not constitute "reasonable force".