Maine Man’s Homemade Doorway Booby Trap Kills Him on Thanksgiving

A Maine man was killed by a device he made for the front door of his home, according to officials, when he unintentionally triggered it.

Ronald Cyr, 65, called 9-1-1 on the evening of Thanksgiving Day and reported he had been shot, the Van Buren Police Department said.

When officers arrived, they discovered a device on the front door of the man's home that was designed to fire a handgun if anyone attempted to enter, the department said.

Police found other unknown devices around the house to the degree of a higher level of investigation needed, so local authorities contacted the state's bomb squad.

After an hours-long investigation, authorities determined Cyr who later succumbed to his injuries, was hit after an "unintentional discharge of one of his homemade devices," the department said.

Van Buren, a predominantly rural town in northern Maine that is 320 miles from Portland, sits along the St. John River directly across the U.S.-Canada border.