A man trying to remove a 6,000-pound boulder from his backyard was crushed to death by the rock. Paul Comeau Jr., 47, was digging up the enormous boulder against his home in Raymond, New Hampshire, when it pinned him underneath him according to his neighbors.

"He was in the ditch digging around the bottom of the boulder with a handheld tool of some sort," Lt. Michael Labelle of the Raymond Police Department said.

Comeau was trying to dig out the five-foot-wide stone to stop the pathway for water to leak into his basement when it rained. Apparently, it was a home improvement project he had been working on for several months.

"When it's that big, you would think you would ask for help," said Cara Maurice, one of his neighbors. "There's plenty of neighbors around here that we do that on a daily basis. We go up to neighbors' houses and help them out."

Comeau's family said the last time they saw him was around 3:00 p.m. when he went to the backyard to chip away at moving the three-ton boulder. Hours later, his wife realized he had never returned and went outside to find him. It didn't take long to find him trapped against the house and the massive weight of the rock.

"The boulder got free and rolled towards him, pinning him between the boulder and the side of the ditch," Labelle said.

After calling emergency services, it took a tow truck to free the father and martial arts instructor, but by then too much time had passed. His family, neighbors and Comeau's martial arts students were shocked by the incident.

"To think that you're working out there by yourself and something like this can happen," Maurice said. "So tragic, so close to home."