KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two former tenants of a man accused of trying to make a pipe bomb in the Northland said he is deranged and dangerous.
On Tuesday, Kansas City, Mo., police found the makings of a pipe bomb inside the home of 54-year-old Joe Radmacher. Jim Swafford and his fiancee Amy Muck said that was only the tip of the iceberg.
Related: Man with Pipe Bomb Terrorized Neighborhood, Neighbors Say
The couple spoke exclusively with FOX 4 one day after police took Radmacher to a mental hospital to be evaluated.
The couple said they moved into the home near 70th Street and Corrington in April 2011. They had a lease-to-own agreement with Radmacher but say they moved out in the middle of the night after four months for their own safety. Swafford describes his former landlord as “one of the most disturbed human beings I’ve ever met”.
Swafford said he and Muck stopped by the house a few days before they moved in last year and went inside when they saw the front door open.
“He snuck up on us and started screaming and yelling saying we were trespassing,” Swafford said. “I saw where he had killed a cat in the house and he had cat traps all over the place.”
The couple said if they hadn’t already paid a $3,800 non-refundable deposit, they would have never moved in.
Days after moving, Muck said they discovered the garage had been turned into a firing range.
“After cleaning out the garage and moving the boards, the Styrofoam, there were doors, old wooden doors that just had tons, hundreds of bullet holes through there and you could see shell casings,” she said.
But that wasn’t the most disturbing find.
“Little girls’ underwear, very disturbing,” Swafford said. “The whole place was wired for pinhole cameras.”
Swafford said he had to rip out an electrical wire that surrounded the backyard. He says Radmacher told him it was to zap kids who Radmacher thought were sneaking into his backyard.
Swafford and Muck said they had reason to believe Radmacher was trying to go through their mail and was showing up outside the house late at night, causing their dog to bark.
They also showed FOX 4 disturbing emails from Radmacher and say that after four months they moved out when they realized the house was in foreclosure.
“If he ever found out where we lived, I think he would take revenge on us,” Swafford said.
Muck said they were concerned for their safety.
“[Radmacher is] a control freak, so he would be the one to get the last word no matter what it takes for him to do it,” she said.
Muck believes police got him just in time.
“If they hadn’t showed up when they did, who knows what would’ve happened?”
A day before the pipe bomb incident Radmacher was served with a restraining order for shooting up the house across the street with a BB gun.
Radmacher hasn’t been charged with either the BB gun or the pipe bomb incident. Instead he’s being evaluated at a local mental hospital. Swafford hopes he never gets out.
“I would say with 99 percent certainty that if he gets out, somebody is going to get hurt.”
Swafford and Muck said they did inform police about the bullet holes and girls’ underwear in the garage, but said they didn’t feel like police took their discovery very serious.
