Posted on 07/15/2004 9:10:36 AM PDT by marshmallow
Andrew Greff drove to a Bismarck hospital with one arm Saturday morning after he blew apart his other arm with a pipe bomb.
"I lit a pipe bomb, and it went off in my hand," the 21-year-old Bismarck man told St. Alexius Medical Center staff at about 6:30 a.m. when he ran through the emergency room doors. He said the accident happened at Kimball Bottoms, about 10 miles south of Bismarck.
The explosion blew apart Greff's left arm between his hand and mid bicep, Bismarck Police Lt. Dan Donlin said. The Tribune was unable to contact Greff for comment, and the hospital was unable to release his condition Monday afternoon.
Earlier this month, Greff and a friend, Doug Feist, 27, were accused of keeping poisonous snakes in Greff's 306 N. 13th St. apartment. They both face felony reckless endangerment charges for putting neighbors in danger. Greff was out of jail on a $500 bond.
Hospital staff called Bismarck police shortly after Greff pulled up next to the ambulance entrance. The bomb squad roped off an area around Greff's car while they searched inside it for explosives. The car was towed when only a few large fireworks were found inside.
Greff didn't answer many of the officers' questions. He was heavily sedated due to the "extreme pain," Donlin said.
Later that day, investigators went to Greff's apartment with a search warrant. No one answered their knocks, but they found a 20-year-old man hiding in the closet when they went inside. The man was not arrested, and police would not release his name.
Further investigation revealed that Feist, of Bismarck, helped make the pipe bombs and that he and Greff were attaching them to propane tanks, Donlin said. Feist was arrested after a witness said Feist helped construct the bomb, Donlin said.
Feist's car was searched next. Some evidence was found in the house and the car, but authorities were unable to elaborate because the investigation is ongoing.
"I haven't done anything wrong," Feist said Monday in an interview from the Burleigh County jail. "I never helped build the pipe bombs."
Feist said he wasn't with Greff Saturday morning, and that his friend acted on his own. Feist said he didn't hear about Greff's accident until after he was arrested and "it caught me as much off guard as everyone else."
"I feel really, really bad for him, but I just keep thinking 'Why would he do something like this?' I don't understand it," Feist said. "It just doesn't make any sense."
The Burleigh County Sheriff's Department also is investigating the accident because Greff said it occurred in the county. Sheriff's Maj. Nick Sevart said they were unable to find where the explosion occurred, but deputies are continuing to search just in case Greff left something dangerous behind.
"If there's a danger to the public, we want to take care of that," Sevart said.
Greff and Feist were charged Monday with felony possession of a bomb, Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Leann Bertsch said. Greff will appear in court for his first appearance -- where he's told of the charge against him and bond is set -- when he's released from the hospital. Feist had his first appearance Monday and is being held in the Burleigh County jail on a $5,000 cash bond.
I'd go with 4 more - just to be on the genetic safe side.
This is someone to keep an eye on.
It might be a good idea for the now one-armed man to give up poisonous snake care after this. That is unless he's determined to finally win that Darwin Prize.
We do not ask someone to hold our beers at my family gatherings. We have drink holder in the arms of our lawn chairs and coasters inside. That is only for the rare occasion we put the dang beer down.
Propane tanks??? Bloody amateurs.
The home cutting torch cylinders are far superior and a lot more transportable.
For anti-personnel instead of incendiary a length of duct tape with framing nails
set head-to-toe wrapping the device works quite nicely.. I heard somewhere.
The arm stayed...
"Well Duh ... he only has like one arm, ya know!"
Yeah, yeah....there are a bunch of guys in my "neighborhood" who like to blow stuff up.
Regularly.
I think the male fascination with high explosives is related to pyromania. Boys just naturally love to play with fire. The boys who love it the most grow up to become fire fighters, pyrotechnicians, demolition techs, combat engineers, tankers and artillerymen. The opportunity to blow things up, burn things down, shoot the hell out of things and not go to jail for it is a powerful recruiting aid.
Ever notice how some firecracker fuses burn really slow, and others go "fss*BOOM!*" almost instantly?
I'm guessing these guys never noticed that.
The radical Cubans in Miami back in the 70's used to talk a couple of sticks of dynamite and ducttape them to 2 or 3 of the small hardware store propane cylinders, like the kind you use for lanterns and plumbing torches.
What happened to the gene pool in North Dakota?
The Red Green Show (canadian humor but close enough to the Dakotas)
Episode 219: The Chainsaw Races
The Possum Lodge is double-booked for Reds chainsaw races and Harolds gifted children. Red turns a van into a boom box louder than any teenagers car radio. Dalton, Winston and Walter deal with a runaway nail gun. Dwight Cardiff talks about skydiving again. Handymans Corner shows how to paint a room with a lawn sprinkler.
I don't think I've ever blown anything up, though.
When I was in Junior High, some of my classmates (two guys) blew up the concession stand at the school football stadium one night when nobody was around.
I thought that was pretty cool.
What did Custer tell the North Dakotans?
Stay stupid till I get back.
One should use a REALLY long fuse when doing something this stupid!!! We prefer to shoot the object in question from a long way off!!
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