MARSHALL, Mo. – Police in Marshall, Mo. say at least three people found pop bottle bombs in what were once their mailboxes on Sunday. It’s left a sense of unrest in a city that doesn’t usually worry about violent crime.
“I saw that the front of the mailbox was blasted out into the street and the back side of it was blasted up into the yard,” Vickie Tucker said of her former mailbox.
Hers was one in several houses hit Sunday morning. Police say pop bottle bombs, which are made with household products and a pop bottle, were responsible for each blown up mailbox. While the bombs are easy to make, they’re extremely dangerous.
“They are very volatile, that they can go off in your hands,” Tucker explained after doing a little research.
Crystal Lozano says she found one a little later in the week outside her house.
“I went outside and found a pop bottle thing where the truck was parked, and you could tell that it hadn’t completely blown up,” she explained.
Police aren’t counting hers in the official list of bombs at this point, but Lozano believes the bottle she found was no accident.
“It was very much done on purpose,” she said.
Police say they know who’s responsible.
“There are four juveniles involved that we know. Investigation is still ongoing,” says Sgt. Roger Gibson from the Marshall Police Department.
No charges have been filed against anyone yet.
A couple of the victims say the bombings could be related to relationships gone bad at the high school, but police and school officials wouldn’t comment on that. Police say they believe their investigation is far enough along that people in Marshall should feel safe tonight.
