A Minnesota curmudgeon has been charged after he allegedly placed a homemade spike strip along a popular bike path to take petty revenge on child cyclists using his yard as a shortcut.
Kyle James Steffen, 39, is accused of installing the device outside his home, which sits along popular Goodview Park in the small city of Wyoming, earlier this year.
Officers were called to his $366,000 home on April 28 after a neighbor reported that Steffen was yelling at her children to stay out of his yard, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail.
When they arrived on scene, police saw a three-foot-long and five-inch-wide piece of plastic anchored into the grass next to his home, the filing said.
There were about 40 three-inch screws sticking straight up from the plastic strip, according to the complaint.
Officers noted bicycle tracks running under and around the strip and said it appeared that local children would bike through Steffen's yard as a shortcut into the park.
He has been charged with one gross misdemeanor count of setting a spring gun/pitfall/deadfall or snare. If convicted, Steffen could face

