A shot gun-rigged rat trap. Spike strips waiting in the driveway. Booby-trapped animal snares rigged to a parked minivan. A killer hot tub turned on its side to mow down intruders. These were just a few of the insane, hidden hazards an FBI agent and bomb squad found themselves facing at a house in Oregon last month—an operation the feds said was "much like a scene from the movie Indiana Jones."
According to the Oregonian, Gregory Lee Rodvelt, 66, allegedly rigged his 15-acre property like Home Alone when he was forced to hand it over after losing a $2.1 million elder abuse lawsuit filed by his mother. He was already in jail for getting into an armed standoff with cops in Arizona last year, but they let him out for two weeks to get his Oregon property ready to sell—a chunk of time he apparently used to turn the place into a death trap.
In late August, a real estate lawyer in charge of selling the house found a sign warning trespassers it was "protected with improvised devices," and decided to contact the cops. When an FBI agent and three bomb technicians showed up to check it out, they reportedly found a horde of deadly booby traps all over the property. Along with the spike strips and animal snares outside, there was a massive hot tub turned on its side, rigged with a tripwire to crush intruders like that boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
"Upon closer examination, the technicians discovered that the spa was rigged in such a manner that when the gate was opened it would activate a mechanical trigger that would cause the spa to roll towards the person at the gate," authorities wrote in a criminal complaint.
After navigating the traps outside, the cops blew open the front door to the house and crept in, accidentally nudging an innocent-looking wheelchair that was rigged to a fishing line tripwire and a shotgun shell. As soon as they triggered it, it set off an explosion, sending a bullet flying into the FBI agent's leg.
Authorities pinned the elaborate booby-trapping job on Rodvelt, and they've since charged him with assault on a federal officer, the Oregonian reports. Meanwhile, he's also facing charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, and "failure to mark explosives" from that standoff back in 2017.
According to the Guardian, that real estate lawyer has since sent a separate team of ex-military experts into the property to comb it for other booby traps, but there's no word on whether they found any deadly washing machines or killer ironing boards or whatever. He's apparently still trying to sell the place, which sounds great if you're into into living like a domesticated Lara Croft.
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