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.

[skeeter]

He was a pizza delivery man in his 40s.

I can't imagine being 46 & having to live on minumum wage plus the kinds of tips people give pizza delivery men. Especially if I were trying to provide for somebody.

[alisasny]

His plee to help him tells me he was set up. Yes, I could be wrong but from the little we know about this man he was no criminal and looking at that bomb contraption....not the way a normal guy would go about robbing a bank.

The other death concerns me to the extent of..did that guy set his friend up and then had to be silenced when the plan went bad?

[Peach]

Do you honestly think every city, let alone small town, has access to helicopters? Not even every hospital has one, let alone the police. Sheesh.

[Peach]

You're so right in your #66. People need to get with reality!

[cmsgop]

Ping

[weegee]

You say that a bomb squad was dispatched from another town. That town could have a helicopter. I wasn't suggesting that this town fly out, pick up the bomb squad, and bring them in.

Sheesh yourself.

[weegee]

So far the job of the bomb squad seems to be to blow up "mysterious" packages. Blow it up and then pick up the pieces.

That didn't work in this case so the solution was to let the emergency "resolve" itself.

How many video games or lunches have been blown up by bomb squads? I agree that "cut the blue wire" is not the day to day reality. Read up on the Columbian bomb squads (where these bombs are a more common reality). They DO work to save the victim. Protect and serve.

[Peach]

That area of PA is VERY poor and it's unlikely the next big city/town over even has a helicopter. They are lucky they have a bomb squad that was ONLY two towns over.

It tooks less than 30 minutes for the bomb squad to arrive on the scene which I think is an acceptable period of time for the average rural town.

It unfortunately wasn't even time for Mr. Wells, if in fact he wasn't a suicide.

[weegee]

The cops should have just shot him to put him out of his misery then.

[Sacajaweau]

It does look like the clamp for a sleeve on a pipe and it also reminded me of a part that holds up the long thing under a car like the drive shaft??..(Is that right). I just remember seeing a car all apart and it looks familiar AND maybe....the parts came from a junk yard.

[weegee]

We are in the era of domestic terrorism, like it or not. This is national security. Response times will have to improve as we will be facing more "Old World" style bombings. 9.11 saw to it. The Old America that didn't get attacked much is over.

Whether it is Islamofascists or black shirted anarchists, we are facing a ramp up of bombing threats. This case may be a lone nut but a bomb is a bomb, regardless of who ignites it.

[irgbar-man]

So ... Is this pizza joint any good?

[weegee]

We are going to have to learn from this event. It is a tragedy to tell a victim, there is nothing we can do for you, nothing we are going to do for you, and by the way we will consider you to be a suspect and a liar until your are dead. Freeze, we've got our guns drawn on you.

[Sacajaweau]

I just know this story is going to have a ridiculous, stupid ending because it has a ridiculous, stupid beginning.