Posted on 05/07/2002 9:06:32 AM PDT by SunStar
Headline Only...
New Mailbox Bomb Found in TexasOMAHA, Neb. — A pipe bomb found Monday in a mailbox near Amarillo, Texas, appears to be from the same source as 17 others found since Friday in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado, the FBI said Tuesday.
"It's another pipe bomb. It looks similar to the others," said FBI agent Larry Holmquist in Omaha. "Upon our initial inspection, it appears it would be from the same source."
Holmquist said a letter was attached to the pipe bomb, but investigators had not yet inspected it.
"We haven't made any comparisons yet, but everything else, including the bomb itself, looks similar in nature," he said.
Amarillo is about 325 miles southeast of Salida, Colo., where another pipe bomb was found Monday. There have been no arrests and no injuries reported since six people were hurt Friday.
Authorities said anti-government notes found with most of the earlier devices were nearly identical, and profiling experts have said whoever wrote them is probably an older American man.
The FBI had said Monday that the first 15 bombs clearly came from the same source. The 16th bomb, found Monday in Nebraska, was "pretty much the same" as the first 15, said Mike Matuzek, Postal Service district manager for Nebraska and southwest Iowa.
FBI agent Mark Mershon said the 17th bomb, found Monday in south-central Colorado, was consistent with the others.
The discovery of the bomb in a Colorado mailbox already had made authorities fearful that the wave of terrorism had spread out of the Midwest.
"The logical concern here, given that this device is consistent with the others, is: `Is the tip of the iceberg?"' Mershon said after the 17th bomb was found in a plastic bag in a curbside mailbox outside Salida, Colo.
Postal carriers in the area were told not to deliver materials to any closed mailbox.
The scare began Friday when six people were injured by mailbox explosives in Illinois and Iowa, creating new fears about domestic terrorism striking the heartland.
By the end of the weekend, eight bombs had been found in Illinois and Iowa, and then eight more were discovered in rural areas of Nebraska.
The bombs in Iowa and Illinois were found in rural locations that form a large, uneven ring about 70 miles in diameter. The Nebraska bomb sites form a large ring about 90 miles across.
Those two areas are separated by about 350 miles but connected by Interstate 80. Salida, about 100 miles southwest of Denver, is more than 400 miles west of the Nebraska bomb sites.
Amarillo is about 325 miles southeast of Salida.
At Salida, all mailbox doors were open along the quiet residential street, 12 miles from the center of town, where the bomb was found. A man who answered the door at the house said he didn't want to comment.
"It seems unreal in a small town like Salida, in a residential neighborhood. It's just unbelievable," said Ida Hansen, a resident of the town of some 4,700 people for 20 years.
A suspected explosive device found Monday in a field about 80 miles east of Salida turned out not to be related to the case, said Rich Marianos, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
As nervous letter carriers went back to work across the Midwest on Monday, rural residents in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska were asked to leave their mailboxes open or remove their mailbox doors as a precaution.
Jim Pelzer wore safety goggles and earplugs as he delivered mail at Tipton, Iowa, where one of the bombs exploded Friday.
"My feeling was when we had 9/11 and the anthrax scare, I was a little concerned about my job safety," Pelzer said. "But now I'm intimidated and scared."
Officials described the bombs as three-quarter-inch steel pipes attached to 9-volt batteries, and said they appeared to be triggered by being touched or moved.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Appropriate gender for a mailbox bomber. LOL
PMSNBC says they won't give out the name until the person is arrested. FoxNews gave it out already.
...in a plain brown wrapper?
BWHAHAHA!!!
FMCDH
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