SALISBURY – A 69-year old Salisbury man was working on mowing a lawn at a rental property he helped maintain Wednesday morning when the riding lawn mower he was working on fell on him, killing him.

Rowan County Sheriffs Office said deputies were called to a home on Southern Breeze Lane just after 9 a.m. by the man’s wife. She reported her husband had been trying to replace a blade under a zero-turn riding lawn mower when it fell.

A woman inside the rental house told deputies the man reportedly was using a chain pulley, designed to lift 1,000 pounds, and a rope to lift the mower, and he was underneath working on the blades when the rope, which appeared to have been frayed, broke.