The episode highlights how states across the country have grown leery of out-of-town license plates and visitors amid the spread of the coronavirus, as people flee cities that have been hit hard by the pandemic for vacation homes and wide-open spaces elsewhere.

In Rhode Island, police officers and National Guard members were deployed to collect contact information from out-of-state drivers at the state border and inform them they must self-quarantine. Hawaii, which thrives on tourism, is asking visitors to stay away for a month. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are shut to nonresidents. And in Alaska, almost all people, whether or not they live there, must quarantine themselves upon arrival.The roommates in Maine used a radio to contact the Coast Guard and a drone to keep an eye on the group outside until the authorities arrived, the sheriff’s office said.

The group had dispersed by the time law enforcement arrived, the sheriff’s office added, but “it was apparent that the tree had been cut down and dragged into the roadway to block it.”

The sheriff’s office said deputies “learned that there is a general belief by some island residents that the Cripple Creek residents are supposed to be quarantined because they came here from another state and could have Covid-19,” the disease caused by the coronavirus.

But the authorities found that the three roommates had been living in Vinalhaven for about 30 days, much longer than the two-week quarantine guideline issued by public health officials, and that none of them had any symptoms of the virus.