Magisterial District Judge Stephen Bayer held charges for Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas against a man charged with setting a booby trap for police.

Ronald Riffon, Kelayres, now will have to answer for possessing an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another person. Bayer held the preliminary hearing May 25.

State police say he set the trap with a pickax and a knife above an entranceway at a home in Kline Township. Police responded to the 200 block of North Street in Kelayres Feb. 2 to serve an involuntary commitment warrant.

Police say the home was not fit for occupancy because it had no heat, running water or electricity. He was found asleep on a bed behind a plastic curtain. Police noticed the booby trap “ominously” mounted with a “string type activation mechanism.”