Man Whose Home Was Rigged With Indiana Jones Booby Traps Gets Prison Time

Gregory Lee Rodvelt of Williams, Oregon was found guilty of assaulting a federal officer and using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence on June 2, stemming from an incident at his home on September 7, 2018.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release.

“Fueled by anger and bitterness, this defendant boobytrapped a property in southern Oregon with intent to seriously injure someone. Unfortunately, his trap worked, and he injured an FBI bomb technician,” said Nathan J. Lichvarcik, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eugene and Medford Branch Offices in a press release. “We are fortunate Greg Rodvelt’s actions did not kill a law enforcement officer or community member. Today’s sentence is a just punishment for a serious crime.”

“This individual went through great efforts to set intricate and deadly concealed traps to prevent FBI agents from doing their job. These were no joke,” added Kieran L. Ramsey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Portland Field Office.

According to local reports, Rodvelt lost his property in a lawsuit filed by his mother. Though he was serving time behind bars in Arizona for an unrelated incident, he was released from jail for two weeks in August 2018 to prepare the home for sale; instead, he allegedly loaded up the property with extremely dangerous traps. The person in charge of selling the estate reached out to authorities for help after returning to the home and finding a sign saying it was now “protected with improvised devices.”

Bomb technicians from Oregon State Police and the FBI responded to the home shortly after … and, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office, immediately saw some of Rodvelt’s handiwork in action.

“When the bomb technicians arrived at the property, they observed a minivan blocking the gate. The technicians found steel animal traps affixed to a gate post and under the hood of the minivan. They also located homemade spike strips, which the receiver had previously run over,” said the Department of Justice.

“As the technician neared the residence, they observed a hot tub that had been placed on its side and rigged in a manner that when a gate was opened it would activate a mechanical trigger causing the spa to roll toward the person who had opened the gate,” the release continued.

A photo of the hot tub trap can be seen below:

If that sounds like a familiar setup, well, it was apparently inspired by the famed opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Gray, Rodvelt later confirmed the film served as his inspiration — allegedly describing the trap “by referencing the ‘stone rolling down in the Indiana Jones Movie.'”

The authorities were able to sidestep those initial obstacles, before spotting “a rat trap modified to accept a shotgun shell,” which would be tripped by the garage door when opened. The trap was unloaded, however. The officers then gained entry to the home by using an explosive charge on the front door.

“The group carefully entered the residence, looking for traps, and found a wheelchair in the center of the front entryway. When the wheelchair was bumped, it triggered a homemade shotgun device that discharged a .410 shotgun shell that struck the FBI bomb technician below the knee,” read the Attorney’s Office release.