Teen on bike injured by clothesline hung on private property by homeowner

Teen injured after homeowner hangs clothesline from house on private property

A homeowner's yard alongside his house is a popular cut through in Rochester Hills. In order to put a stop to it, he attached a clothesline there.

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (FOX 2) - It’s a modern-day story of "get off my lawn." But there’s a legal lesson to be learned.

A homeowner's yard alongside his house is a popular cut through in Rochester Hills. In order to put a stop to it, he attached a clothesline there.

The backstory:

Max, 13, was riding his bike and tried using the shortcut - but got injured. Five days later, there is a sign attached to a wooden arm, acting as a barrier.

"What was your intention when you set up a clothesline at neck level for kids passing through there?" said attorney David Femminineo.

"Do you think you hit this one," says Max's father on video, retracing his son's path where the line was.

"I didn't see it at least," Max says.

Max says he got clotheslined - and got a pretty good burn on his neck in the process.  A photo shared to FOX 2 shows the red line across his neck.

"Was your intention to tell them 'Stay off my property' with a clothesline that you can’t see? That’s diabolical," Femminineo said.

The other side:

Richard Story is the property owner.

"It is, I hate to say it, private property. Please stay off of it," he said.

Story says he didn’t want deer to go between the property because it aggravated his dog, which was recovering from surgery.  

"I feel horrible that this child was injured. This was not put up for malicious intent," he said. "This was put up for my dog to not run and me not having to chase him out my doggie door."

And all because of the deer.

FOX 2: "If the homeowner doesn’t like his crossing near his property legally, can he put up a clothesline?"

"I certainly don’t think he could put up a clothesline," said Femminineo. "He could put up cones, he could put up signs, he could put up a fence."

FOX 2: "Do you think the (clothesline) is dangerous?"

"No, it was an easy stop-gap solution," said Story.

As of Wednesday, no lawsuit had been filed.

"I didn’t even see him ever on my lawn," Story said. "I didn’t know this had happened until the sheriff knocked on my door at 10 o’clock at night."

No tickets were given, but the sheriff said to take the line down.

"The biggest thing at the end of the day, I hope the child is okay," he said. "I do hope that maybe a lesson has been learned. A lesson was learned from me. I’m not going to put a wire up around my yard anymore, obviously."

Maybe the legal lesson is learned is, don’t trespass and don’t make your property dangerous.