Explosive Device

Sheriff's deputies showed up to serve what was supposed to be a routine eviction notice in Crofton yesterday afternoon -- and quickly called for backup when it looked like they might get more than they bargained for.Inside the Forest Hill Court home was what appeared to be a powerful explosive device, a discovery that led officials to briefly evacuate the community of about 60 townhomes.An hour later, officials confirmed it was all a mix-up."It was a novelty item -- a fake -- that looked like a bomb," said Officer Charles Ravenell, the spokesman for Anne Arundel County police.

A teen-ager who lighted a homemade explosive under a trash can to see how high it would blast the can pleaded guilty yesterday to recklessly endangering other people and was placed on three years' probation.Jerimi J. Kriner, 18, asked Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Clayton R. Greene Jr. "to take mercy on me" because he spent 104 days in jail awaiting trial. His bail had been set at $5,000. Kriner's attorney, Gill Cochran, described the February event as the prank of a curious, if troubled, youth.

The homemade explosive device found in a student's locker by the principal of a Montgomery County middle school was not intended to harm anyone in the building, authorities said yesterday.Instead, Rocky Hill Middle School in semirural Clarksburg was being used as a transfer point for the incendiary device, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services Capt. John Rooney said yesterday."Someone made it, and brought it to school to give to another kid," Rooney said. "The target was nobody in school."

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Southern DistrictStolen car: A 1988 Plymouth Sundance with tags ESJ 474 was stolen in the 2400 block of Marbourne Road on Tuesday.Burglary: A 20-inch television and a radio, both valued at more than $600, were stolen Tuesday from a house in the 3900 block of Pennington Ave. in Curtis Bay.Western DistrictDrug arrests: Police were in the 600 block of N. Fremont Ave. Tuesday when they saw a large crowd of people, among them two men, who appeared to be involved in a drug transaction.

Two alert Montgomery County middle school students thwarted what authorities say was a planned bombing attack against their principal yesterday after they saw classmates showing off a crude explosive device on a crowded school bus.After being tipped off by the students, Principal Alan Stein opened a locker in a second floor hallway, peered inside a book bag and saw wires. He immediately pulled a fire alarm and evacuated 750 students and teachers from Rocky Hill Middle School in Damascus.Montgomery County firefighters determined that the bomb was real and powerful enough, had it gone off, to injure people standing 200 feet away.

The homemade explosive device found in a student's locker by the principal of a Montgomery County middle school was not intended to harm anyone in the building, authorities said yesterday.Instead, Rocky Hill Middle School in semirural Clarksburg was being used as a transfer point for the incendiary device, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services Capt. John Rooney said yesterday."Someone made it, and brought it to school to give to another kid," Rooney said. "The target was nobody in school."

A 16-year-old Arundel Senior High School student can expect to be expelled today after an Anne Arundel County school system probe determined he made and tried to detonate an explosive during a gubernatorial visit to the school last month.A procedural review of the case will be made early today, but "I expect the letter will go out and he will be expelled," said Stephen Barry, special assistant to the superintendent for student discipline.The student has the right to appeal to the school board seeking readmission.

One day after police charged a 16-year-old student with igniting an explosive device in Arundel Senior High School during a recent gubernatorial visit, a bomb threat threw the school into confusion and finally shut it down yesterday.Anne Arundel County police said they found no bomb at the Gambrills school and they are unsure if the call was connected to the arrest they made in the case of an explosive device found smoldering in a hall locker March 27."There is a bomb in the school that will go off today," an anonymous male caller told the school's switchboard operator, police reported.

One day after police charged a 16-year-old student with igniting an explosive device in Arundel Senior High School during a recent gubernatorial visit, a bomb threat threw the school into confusion and finally shut it down yesterday.Anne Arundel County police said they found no bomb at the Gambrills school and they are unsure if the call was connected to the arrest they made in the case of an explosive device found smoldering in a hall locker March 27."There is a bomb in the school that will go off today," an anonymous male caller told the school's switchboard operator, police reported.

NEW YORK -- After a prolonged, confounding search of the ocean floor, investigators have finally found scientific evidence that an explosive device was detonated inside the passenger cabin of Trans World Airlines Flight 800, senior federal officials said yesterday.Chemists at the FBI crime laboratory in Washington have found traces of PETN, a chemical in plastic explosives, on a piece of wreckage retrieved from the jet's passenger cabin between Rows 17 and 27, according to three senior officials deeply involved in the investigation.

A man arrested near the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus Tuesday after a police officer said he was carrying a makeshift explosive device was charged yesterday with assault, reckless endangerment and concealing a deadly weapon. Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford identified the suspect as Dallas Jermaine Smith, 22, who has no fixed address. A District Court commissioner yesterday ordered Smith to be held without bail; his next court appearance has not been set. Clifford said that a university officer stopped the man in the 800 block of W. Baltimore St. on Tuesday morning because he was clutching his side as if he was trying to hide a weapon.

A man who was stopped yesterday morning and questioned by a police officer near the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus was arrested after a makeshift explosive device fell from his knapsack when he fought with the officer, authorities said. The man was being questioned by detectives, and charges had not been filed yesterday evening. His name was not released. Sterling Clifford, a Baltimore police spokesman, said the man was stopped by the university officer in the 800 block of W. Baltimore St. about 7:30 a.m. "The man was clutching his side as if he was trying to conceal a weapon," Clifford said.

A Howard County student faces a felony charge, and another likely will be charged after an explosive device was detonated at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, police said yesterday. No one was injured in the incident Tuesday. On Thursday morning, one boy was charged as a juvenile with making and using a destructive device, a felony, and reckless endangerment, police said. Police identified a second student Thursday night, and they plan to charge him with the same counts. Both are 15. About 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, students reported that they heard an explosion in the lobby, police said.

In a field at Oregon Ridge Nature Center yesterday, a bomb expert attached an explosive device to a stick driven into the ground. Nearby, a rubber hand on a stick was clenched around another device. The specialist lit the fuse of the device -- called an M1000 -- on the stick. A thunderous boom ripped through the air but the stick remained intact. He ignited the device in the hand, and after a similar explosion, the hand and the stick lay in pieces on the ground. Fireworks can bring a tragic end to an otherwise happy family event, said William E. Barnard, the state fire marshal.

A Prince George's County man who authorities say was planning to attack an abortion clinic was arrested on charges of manufacturing an explosive device, a pipe bomb that police detonated in a friend's house after trying to disable it. Robert F. Weiler Jr., 25, who had a loaded gun at the time of his arrest, surrendered to police early yesterday at a Garrett County highway rest stop, authorities said. Weiler was charged with possessing an illegal explosive device, making an illegal explosive device, illegally possessing a firearm with a previous felony conviction and possessing a stolen firearm.

Anne Arundel County police have arrested a Crownsville man after they found a handgun and what appeared to be an explosive device in his pickup truck, police said yesterday. The incident caused police to close Elvaton Road in Millersville for four hours while the device was dismantled, according to authorities. Wayne Lewis Milburn, 40, a mechanic at Dillon's Bus Service on Elvaton Road, had been accused of threatening to harm a 35-year-old Crofton man who was dating his estranged wife, according to police and Milburn's supervisor.

WASHINGTON - Vastly outnumbered by U.S. troops, armed with relatively crude weapons, Iraq's insurgents demonstrated again yesterday their skill at identifying vulnerabilities in American and Iraqi government forces, causing a heavy death toll. Pentagon leaders have drawn frequent criticism for not expecting the kind of guerrilla war being waged in Iraq. The most recent, widely noted example was the failure to armor-plate a larger number of Humvees and supply trucks, leaving troops vulnerable to roadside bombs.

A 14-year-old Fulton boy was arrested after he told a Reservoir High School staff member that he had a pipe bomb, police and school officials said yesterday. The teen, who was arrested after school at his home Wednesday, did not threaten to use the pipe bomb at the school or against students, police and school officials said. Working with the state fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Howard County police searched the boy's home and recovered the pipe bomb Wednesday afternoon, police said.

A 14-year-old Fulton boy was arrested after he told a Reservoir High School staff member that he had a pipe bomb, police and school officials said yesterday. The teen, who was arrested after school at his home Wednesday, did not threaten to use the pipe bomb at the school or against students, police and school officials said. Working with the state fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Howard County police searched the boy's home and recovered the pipe bomb Wednesday afternoon, police said.

WASHINGTON - A man and a woman who had strapped various objects to their bodies and appeared to be posing as suicide bombers were arrested yesterday in the Capitol and charged with transporting an explosive device, police said. Police noticed the two chanting and dancing on the first floor of the Capitol, surrounded by a crowd of children, some of whom were photographing the spectacle, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said. Attached to their bodies were objects, including duct tape wrapped in the shape of hockey pucks, vials of an undetermined clear liquid, and globs of clay wrapped in tape that resembled plastic explosives, Gainer said.