Armed neighbors in Maine chopped down a tree to block a man and his roommates from leaving their house out of fear that they had the coronavirus

• A scuffle in Maine started by out-of-state license plates made headline news after residents of a small town blocked neighbors from leaving their driveway.
• The Knox County Sheriff's office said the locals wanted their neighbors to self-isolate after visiting the mainland, but it turns out the group had already been living on the island for at least a month.
• A Maine state representative called the incident a "tremendous waste of resources."
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Residents of a small island in Maine took the coronavirus quarantine matters into their own hands, and potentially broke the law in the process.

Sheriff's deputies in Vinalhaven, an island town of about 1,100 people, arrived after a man found a downed tree blocking the driveway to a home he shared with two roommates.

"While investigating the downed tree, a neighbor started yelling at him and a group of people showed up and began to gather around," the Knox County sheriff's office said in a press release seen by Business Insider, adding that the man told officials that several neighbors displayed guns.

"Believing the group may be there to harm him, [he] fled to his residence and told his roommates what he had found. The trio decided to stay put in the residence, utilized a VHF radio to hail the Coast Guard for assistance, they had no other means of communication, and utilized their drone to keep an eye on the group until law enforcement could arrive to help them," the statement added.

It turns out the neighbors' fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus were misinformed, despite the fact that the homes' occupants were driving vehicles with New Jersey license plates.

"Deputies did investigate this and learned that the trio had been residing on Vinalhaven for about 30 days, which is outside of the guidance issued by state officials, and none have any symptoms consistent with COVID-19," the post continued.

"We want to bring to the public's attention [to] the matter of restricting a person's movements within the state. 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."

On Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to "refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately" due to extensive community transmission in the area.

A Maine state representative called the incident a "tremendous waste of resources."

"There are two guys from NJ on Vinalhaven who have been renting a house since September while working on a construction job," state Rep. Genevieve McDonald said in a Facebook post. "They went to the mainland, and were targeted because of their license plate when they arrived back on Vinalhaven."

She added: "Stay home, wash your hands, don't talk to strangers, and don't waste the time of our first responders."

Knox County Sheriff Tim Carroll told Business Insider that officials are still investigating what happened. He said a Facebook post about the incident that was widely cited in national media outlets had been deleted because "comments were becoming personally or politically inflammatory."

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