New Homeowner Apparently Doesn’t Mind If Auctioned Property Comes With Free Booby Traps

We can think of many reasons not to buy a home — cracks in the foundation, snake infestations, a satanic murder pit in the basement, what have you — but apparently the possibility that a house might be booby-trapped wasn’t a deal-breaker for one new property owner in New Hampshire.

Two properties that were involved in a standoff between federal agents and a couple convicted of tax evasion were auctioned off on Thursday, reports WCVB.com, after failing to sell in an earlier auction.

That might’ve had something to do with the history of the properties — a 100-acre compound with a house and other buildings, as well as a dental office: the former owners were convicted in 2009 of amassing weapons, explosives and booby traps and plotting to kill federal agents who came to arrest them.

During the 2007 standoff, the man told law enforcement and the public that there were booby traps and explosives hidden throughout his property during a radio interview. And before last year’s auction, federal agencies weren’t 100% certain that there weren’t any pesky booby traps still hanging around somewhere, though the house and grounds up to the tree line had been searched and declared free of improvised explosive devices.

“They can’t guarantee that they’ve found everything,” an IRS liquidation specialist explained to WMUR 9 News last week, adding that the potential of explosive devices on the property was included in the notice of sale.

But the businessman who bought the properties apparently isn’t too worried about an explosive surprise down the line, scooping up the compound and house for $205,000 and the dental office for $415,000; minimum bids were $125,000 and $250,000, respectively.

Booby-trapped Brown home sold at auction [WCVB]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist