SALT LAKE CITY — A Cache County man has been charged with placing booby traps around his house, including a gun that fired when a door was opened.
The 21-year-old was charged Tuesday with reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor.
The investigation began when the Cache County Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous complaint about a man who had a gun wired to a door that “was intended to shoot and cause injury (to) an individual if the door was opened,” according to a search warrant affidavit.
When police interviewed a man who lives in the house, he “admitted to wiring the firearm to the back door in the garage. (He) also stated he set up a hammer above a window to fall on anyone entering. He also set up various tools — for example, a shovel and other items attached to trip wires — to fall on anyone coming through a door or window. There was a door wired with electricity so an individual opening the door would be electrified,” the warrant states.
Two other residents told police the firearm had discharged and there was a blood trail by the door, according to the affidavit.
But the Cache County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday said it did not find any evidence of a blood trail and does not believe anyone was shot by the wired door. A sheriff’s spokesman said the department wanted mostly to try and provide the family with help and any treatment that was needed before anyone was actually injured.
The man had recently moved back home from Rexburg, Idaho, where “law enforcement in Rexburg had similar reports involving (him) that are being investigated,” the affidavit says.