Collar Key In Deliveryman Death (Erie pizza delivery bank robbery bomber)

CBS/AP ^ | 9-2-2003 | no byline

[weegee]

(CBS/AP) The FBI on Tuesday released photos of a metal collar found around the neck of a pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank and then was killed when a bomb strapped to his body exploded.

FBI Agent Bob Rudge said the bureau hopes that by releasing the photos of the collar and locking device, someone may come forward to help law enforcement solve the strange case.

A preliminary exam performed on the collar showed that it was likely not commercially manufactured, Rudge said Tuesday.

"We do not believe it has any legitimate industrial use," said Rudge. "Its most likely purpose was specifically for attaching the device to the neck of the individual that went into the PNC Bank.

Arrested Thursday after a bank robbery, Brian Douglas Wells told authorities someone had forced him to rob the bank. He told officers a bomb was attached to him, but he died when it exploded before the bomb squad could get there.

At a news conference Tuesday, Rudge showed photographs of the triple-banded metal collar he said was around Wells' neck and a lock that kept it in place. The bomb was attached to the collar, authorities said.

Police had surrounded Wells, 46, a short time after he robbed a PNC Bank branch outside Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania. Wells had gone to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at the bank with the bomb strapped to his body.

When police stopped Wells, he told them about the bomb and asked why authorities weren't helping to get it off him. Police backed off and were waiting for the bomb squad when the bomb exploded. No one else was injured.

According to police and the FBI, Wells produced an "extensive" robbery note at the bank, which has been sent to handwriting experts. Rudge did not release any additional information about the note Tuesday.

I think there is a possibility of up to 80 percent that this individual is innocent," Professor Robert Heibel, a retired FBI agent, told CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski.

Heibel said Wells likely was set up, a tactic more common to drug runners or terrorists than bank robbers.

"He was being threatened that if he didn't rob the bank, once they hung that device around his neck let's say, then he becomes their patsy," Heibel said. "There are a number of ways they could have convinced him that it is a live device and from there on he is really at their mercy."

Meanwhile, officials released information from an autopsy on one of Wells' co-workers, Robert Pinetti, 43, who was found dead Sunday at his home in nearby Lawrence Park Township. Authorities do not know if his death is connected with Wells' case.

Pinetti had a history of substance abuse and preliminary testing appeared to show methadone and "valium-type" drugs in his system, authorities said. There was no trauma, officials said.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Courtesy of sub driver


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAIY2YH5KD.html

FBI Agent: Second Weapon Found in Bank Robbery, Explosive Used Seen Previously in Colombia
By Judy Lin
Associated Press Writer

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - The bomb strapped to a pizza deliveryman who told police he was forced to rob a bank contained an unusual kind of explosive not typically found in America, FBI agents said Wednesday.
FBI spokesman Bill Crowley confirmed a statement Wednesday by agent Kenneth McCabe that the explosive used in the device was of a kind he had only seen once, in Bogota, Colombia. Crowley also confirmed that a second weapon was found.

The bomb that killed Brian Douglas Wells was secured with a metal collar and lock that FBI officials do not believe was commercially manufactured. Officials released photographs of the device Tuesday in the hope that someone may recognize it and call a telephone tip line.

The second weapons was "unique," Crowley said, but he refused to describe it further.

McCabe, the agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh office, had said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" that the second weapon was "a sort of a gun."

Investigators are still trying to determine whether Wells, 46, was a willing participant in the bank robbery last Thursday.

After police surrounded and handcuffed him, Wells said he had a bomb strapped to him and that someone - he apparently did not say who - had started a timer on the bomb and forced him to rob the bank.

While waiting for a bomb squad to arrive, the bomb exploded.

FBI experts in Quantico, Va., are reconstructing the bomb, which hung from the lock over Wells' chest, and analyzing an extensive, multipage note that was used by the robber, FBI Agent Bob Rudge said. One part of the note was for bank employees, demanding cash during the robbery, and the other part was instructions for the robber, officials said.

Rudge and other officials refused to discuss the specific contents the note or further details about the bomb, including whether it had a timer or a remote control device.

[Devil_Anse]

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. Wow, thanks!!

So, some thug from Colombia comes to the U.S. and sets up shop? Or someone on the high end of the drug trade goes btw the U.S. and Colombia, and so is familiar with Colombian mobs' habits?

I saw the name of the pizza store owner mentioned somewhere on here. But at first, I remember that some reporter tried to interview the guy, and the guy supposedly "asked that his name not be used". What is the pizza parlor owner hiding? What were these guys delivering in addition to pizza? Remember, they said the call came in and the manager (owner?) answered, but passed the phone to Wells so Wells could get the directions himself. Sounds like the pizza parlor was a front for some other enterprise... (duhhh!)

I also read somewhere on here that the police wouldn't say if Wells had a record. Maybe he did. Or maybe he had a drug habit, or was trying to kick such a habit. Notice that his co-worker was kind of... er... not successful... and the co-worker sounds like HE had a druggie past. I could see such guys being used by someone. The criminal would want weakling types like these guys.

I would say maybe it's a life insurance scam, but if it were, seems the criminal would have just given this guy some bad stuff and let him O.D.--not put some bizarre, attention-magnet bomb on him. There was such an enterprise somewhere in the U.S., can't remember where, but the gist of it was, these two brothers would "help out" various derelicts. They would take out life insurance on them, b/c the derelicts had such a poor life expectancy. All went well for them until they got a little impatient waiting for some of their insured's to die. They O.D.'d a couple of them, to bring in some money. Then they got caught.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

He has been in this area for most of his life, save a few years when he went to Arizona to live with his brother. The FBI found no tool s, or misc. mtal things around or in his house.

[Vigilantcitizen]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/974616/posts?page=29#29

With pic.

[Sacajaweau]

He didn't always deliver pizza because pizza delivery hasn't been around that long. Wonder what else he has worked at.

[Sacajaweau]

I saw that. Regardless of what we see, we don't know what was really operable. The tumblers can all be for looks and the key the only real operating mechanism. Regardless, the tumblers are "junk". There's cuts and welds and shims all over the place. The screws do not anchor flush etc..

I'm trying to figure out the wiring, too? Why the loops? and not bared connecting wires?? or am I looking at something wrong??

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Well that is interesting. This is a very small town. People grow up here and never leave. What I find surprising is that no one I know has mentioned knowing Wells. It is really strange too because the people here are not talking about it. In this town everyone knows everyone else.

I was just up on Peach street running errands, right near the place where the cops pulled this guy over. No one here is acting differently about this. There minimal local coverage on this. I am getting most of my news about this case from freepers. Weird huh?

[Devil_Anse]

I understand the pizza had a packet of exploding red dye where the tomato sauce should be. An untrained eye would never have detected it.

[Travis McGee]

On the radio today I heard them say the FBI has determined that the explosive was a type "not found in America."

[Vigilantcitizen]

"FBI spokesman Bill Crowley confirmed a statement Wednesday by agent Kenneth McCabe that the explosive used in the device was of a kind he had only seen once, in Bogota, Colombia."

From post #241

[Travis McGee]

Bomba is spanish for bomb.

Bombero is spanish for fire fighter.

[Devil_Anse]

Matter? Me?

Look, it takes a trained eye to distinguish a red dye pack from tomato sauce. It's best that you not dabble in an area where your expertise may be lacking... (and the little pepperoni circles were tracking devices.)

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks. It's nice to have a translator here!

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks! Hey, I read an article in which this victim's landlady talked about him like he was just a normal, though unambitious and apparently uncomplicated, guy.

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe this guy was not known to his killers. I mean, if they'd known him, seems like they'd have had some other way to lure him to them besides calling in a bogus pizza order. I'm leaning towards their being some psychos who are just beginning their psycho career. This unassuming guy is the type whom nasty, vicious psychos often see as an ideal victim. Maybe the part where they ordered him to rob a bank was just another part of their fantasy of being "in control". Notice they didn't get the money, and they had very little chance of getting it, since this guy would not have been a very good bank robber. I mean, sure enough, he was caught in record time.

[Squantos]

Superanfor.............unique to Columbia and FARC. The IRA home brew. Very nasty stuff. This is getting interesting ........tick ......tick.........tick.......IRA chief cook and bottle washin explosives designer and his two toadies were recently given room and board for a few days. For your reading enjoyment guys.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/08/13/colombia.ira/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2934433.stm

http://www.bringthemhome.ie/storysofar_1.htm

http://www.armedgroups.org/BREAKING%20NEWS/0731col.htm

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/841309/posts




Stay Safe !

[Squantos]

Note one of the IRA three used the alias ........Bracken...........:o)

Stay Safe !

[Vigilantcitizen]

Nice catch.

[TigersEye]

All the hypotheticals that you mentioned should be explored by the LEOs and FLEAs.
That's what I love about FR. I call it the world's greatest virtual think tank.

In spite of my general disdain and distrust of LEOs and FLEAs I am confident that they will do a good job on this. This will be an interesting case to follow.

I am in complete agreement about FR. To paraphrase the old Chinese saying "Many minds turn over many rocks."

[Travis McGee]

In spite of all bureaucratic obstacles, there are many dedicated and often brilliant folks working in technical areas in the FBI and ATF. This is the type of problem where a few smart guys can make a difference, (I hope.)