Armed Men Reportedly Cut Down A Tree To Force Neighbor's Quarantine

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Police in Maine are currently investigating an alleged incident in which armed residents used a tree to block their neighbor’s driveway in an effort to quarantine him and his roommates.

According to reports from ABC News, the man–who is renting the house in Vinalhaven in the Fox Islands–left his house to check on a severed cable line on Friday afternoon, only to discover that a tree was blocking his path. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office said several people with guns allegedly approached the resident and yelled at him.

After that strange encounter, the man ran back into the home before he and his roommates used a VHF radio, their only means of communication, to contact authorities.

“Several law enforcement entities arrived in the area and found the felled tree but no group of people,” the sheriff’s office explained in a Facebook post. “It was apparent that the tree had been cut down and dragged into the roadway to block it.”

At the moment, the town has an order that mandates that anyone who came onto the island recently had to completely self-isolate. The man in question claims, however, that he and his two roommates arrived last month, which is before the cutoff point for that order.

According to the sheriff’s office, they believe the fallen tree was an attempt to block the exit and therefore make these people unable to leave the house. “Whether someone is a Maine resident or not, they have the right to free movement and anyone who infringes upon that free movement is potentially violating the law,” the office said in a statement.