A Carroll County teen-ager was arrested yesterday after state police found a potentially explosive combination of empty airgun cartridges, gunpowder, fireworks and toilet bowl cleaner in his car, authorities said.
Lee E. Hensley, 18, of the 500 block of Old Baltimore Road in Westminster was charged with manufacturing explosive devices and the possession of incendiary devices, state police in Westminster said.
Hensley's co-workers said that he told them he had made bombs and detonated the devices in a rural part of Sykesville, according to state police. A tip prompted investigators from the Westminster barracks to stake out Hensley's house overnight and bring in their Special Tactical Assault Team Element for support. Police would not say where Hensley works.
"Nowadays, because of 9/11, with people's heightened state of awareness, they are attuned to anyone talking about exploding or detonating anything," said Lt. Michael E. Cain, assistant barracks commander.
The ingredients seized could be combined to make a bomb capable of blowing up an object the size of a car and causing injury or death, police said.
Police searched Hensley's house and car early yesterday morning and recovered a bottle of gunpowder, an empty box of cartridges typically used to propel bullets in airguns, a receipt for those cartridges, six boxes of sparklers and a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner, according to charging documents. Hensley talked about filling empty cartridges with gunpowder, then using the sparklers as fuses, the charging documents state.
The toilet bowl cleaner, when mixed with water in a closed container, could be explosive, according to the documents.
Troopers arrested Hensley at his house. He was being held at the Carroll County Detention Center in lieu of $25,000 bail. A bail review hearing is scheduled for this morning.
