CORINNA, Maine — A “very big misunderstanding” resulted in about half a dozen Maine State Police troopers going to a farmhouse on Bowden Road Tuesday afternoon, Trooper Christopher Cookson said.

A man emptying a trash receptacle thought he was being shot at by a homeowner.

“Basically a Dumpster service was coming here to empty a Dumpster,” Cookson said. “A gentleman that lives inside the house yelled out to him to make him aware he was sighting in his rifle and going to be shooting. The shots were taken. The person driving the rubbish vehicle didn’t understand what was going on and thought he was getting shot at.”

Cookson said the shots were taken from the house and fired across Bowden Road. He was not shooting in the direction of the receptacles where the driver was located.

Five or six state police vehicles went to 266 Bowden Road in Corinna in the heavy rain, Cookson said.

Cookson did not have the names of either the homeowner or the Dumpster truck driver. The homeowner declined to give his name to the Bangor Daily News.

“He thought I was mad at him,” the homeowner said of the truck driver, with whom he says he is friends.

“Everything’s under control,” Cookson said. “Apologies have been said between the driver and the homeowner here. Everything’s fine now.”

No charges were made at the scene against the homeowner, but Cookson said the case could be reviewed by the Penobscot County district attorney’s office.

“The only thing in question here is the shots are being fired across the road, and … the big question here is whether charges should be filed or shouldn’t be filed, because it is against the law to shoot across a public way,” Cookson said.

Trooper Forrest Simpson, who is the lead investigator in the case, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Cookson said the incident could easily have been avoided.

“Obviously, he should’ve come and told the driver that he was actually target-shooting or sighting in his rifle clearly instead of yelling out his window, and obviously he wasn’t heard by the driver as to what was going on,” he said.