A man in South Omaha is being accused of using pipe bombs to blow up a tree, because it was dripping sap onto his car. 6 News did not identify the man since police have not arrested or charged him with any crime yet.
The first pipe bomb was reportedly discovered by one of the man’s neighbors at the end of June. Ron Evans found the detonated pipe bomb in his yard. “I’ve been finding pieces. The first one I found was the whole pipe bomb. The second one was just a whole bunch of pieces, and they were pieces of different sized pipe bombs."
Evans reported it to police, and told officers he believed it was his neighbor. Roughly two weeks after Evans’ report, police received a second report from a home about a mile away. Patrick Foster found a detonated pipe bomb near the front door of his house. “You don’t want to have your kids and your wife and anyone here in the neighborhood have to be around anything or exposed to anything like that."
The affidavit details a police encounter with the residents in the home. One woman is said to have told police she knew the man was the one making the pipe bombs and setting them off.
She then took police to the man’s car where they found plastic tubing matching what Evans found in his yard, blue painters tape, and plastic pieces with dried blue and purple glue on it, matching what was found in Foster’s yard.
Evans says he can't believe pipe bombs are being set off in his neighborhood. “This is crazy. This kind of stuff doesn’t belong in the neighborhood. There’s too many little kids around here, and if he’s willing to do it before the fourth, it kind of worries me that well, what else might he have done?”
The woman then told police the man makes the pipe bombs and places them in the tree in front of the home in an attempt to blow it up because “the tree drops sap on his vehicle,” the affidavit said.
“Maybe call an arborist or something rather than trying to blow up your own tree,” Foster said when he heard about the man’s attempts.
The news of pipe bombs doesn’t sit well in the neighborhood. Foster says he and many others are concerned about the large number of children who live nearby. “It’s not funny. It’s not a joke, and there are real people that have real consequences when you do silly things like this. There are kids and families who have to deal with the consequences of what you do."
6 News attempted to speak with the residents of the home, but were turned away. Police would also not comment further on the case as it is under investigation.
(Photo courtesy of 6 News)