A 65-year-old Maine man died on Thanksgiving from injuries sustained by a booby trap he set up in his own home, according to the Van Buren Police Department.
In a statement, police said attended the home of Van Buren resident Ronald Cyr after receiving a 911 call from him in which he said he had been shot. Police found Cyr injured at the scene and attempted to treat him, but he died of his injuries in hospital.
Upon investigating the house, police found that the front door of the house “had been outfitted with a device designed to fire a handgun should anyone attempt to enter the door.” After further investigation, it was determined that the injury had been sustained after he triggered the device.
The Van Buren Police Department did not say why he had set up the traps or how he had come to trigger it, but his siblings spoke to The Guardian, telling them that Cyr’s home had repeatedly been targeted by burglars, and that he had not received a satisfactory response when he sought help from the police.
The siblings told The Guardian that he had been using traps for “years,” but that they had tried to steer him away from using guns. “We were not in favor of him doing that because he wasn’t used to guns – really, that was not his forte – but he was so frustrated,” his sister said.
