BT, I'm going to pick on you a bit. I've seen this happen a lot of times as a sales rep. It has to do with torquing the string while letting down on a short ATA bow. When trying to ease it down most all people twist the string to some degree. What this does is roll it off the cam or idler, usually the cam, and you saw the result. It doesn't hurt the bow but can hurt other people close by, as you found out. Oh, and usually a person has to twist the string to hold onto it because they are drawing more poundage than they can comfortably handle. When letting these things down don't try to ease them down. Just let them down and "go with it" to avoid a dry-fire.