Home Alone Inspired Drug Dealer's Booby-Trap Defenses

Officers found homemade flamethrower, pipe bombs, stun guns, and more
Posted Feb 11, 2026 11:21 AM CST
Home Alone Inspired Drug Dealer's Booby-Trap Defenses
Macaulay Culkin portrays Kevin McCallister in a scene from the family comedy "Home Alone."   (AP Photo/File)

A drug dealer who turned three homes into what prosecutors likened to a real-life Home Alone set has been sent to an English prison for seven years. Ian Claughton, 60, was convicted of drugs and firearms offenses after police uncovered a network of three fortified properties in the village of Grimethorpe, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, where cannabis was grown and supplied, per the Guardian. His ex-wife, 62-year-old Lesley Claughton, who prosecutors said "assisted and encouraged" the crimes, received a 21-month sentence, suspended for two years, per the BBC.

Jurors were told the properties were rigged with improvised devices including modified crow scarers, tripwires, stun guns, homemade pipe bombs, and a makeshift flame-thrower fashioned from a fire extinguisher filled with gas. Outside Claughton's workshop, a sign offered congratulations "for getting this far," adding "now would be a good time to get measured up for your coffin," per the BBC. It also warned of a gate "electrified in excess of 50,000 volts." Prosecutors said Claughton admitted Home Alone had been his inspiration.

The operation unraveled when Border Force intercepted imitation firearms shipped from China to Lesley Claughton, triggering raids in May 2024. About 130 nearby homes had to be evacuated while bomb disposal experts made the area safe. Detective Superintendent Al Burns noted officers had found "modified booby-trap devices" with "the appearance of homemade bombs." Officers also seized large amounts of cannabis and amphetamines, weapons including a crossbow, and what they described as "an enormous amount of cash," with more than $35,000 sewn into a sofa.

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