Posted 3:46 pm Thursday, March 25, 2010
UPDATE: Device Found at Troup Post Office Is Another Pipe Bomb
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
TROUP – For the second time in three days, federal officials have cordoned off an area around an East Texas post office after a suspected pipe bomb was discovered.
Staff Writer
TROUP – For the second time in three days, federal officials have cordoned off an area around an East Texas post office after a suspected pipe bomb was discovered.
U.S. Postal inspectors and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are on the scene on Troup in front of the building that serves as the town's U.S. post office and city hall after a postal worker found a suspicious device in the blue collection box in front of the building today.
Pat Hendrix, Troup chief of police, said the device was found at 12:47 p.m.
“The employee went to collect the mail and found the device,” Hendrix said. “They then notified us. We secured a perimeter and called the ATF, who is now on the scene.”
Federal officials are saying today’s device is the same type of device found Tuesday evening at the Laird Hill Post Office in Rusk County. ATF officials said Wednesday that device was about a foot long, encased in metal pipe, and was an explosive device.
U.S. Postal Inspector and Dallas region spokesperson Amanda McMurray said the postal service is working in conjunction with the ATF on the case in Troup and all of the now 30 devices found in East Texas blue mail collection boxes in the past month. Twenty-eight of those devices have been described as Molotov-cocktail-type devices with some sort accelerant in a bottle with a wick.
“We are adding additional resources, as is the ATF, and we are actively looking for the person or persons responsible for these actions,” she said.
There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
Updated Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 3:45 p.m. CDT
“The employee went to collect the mail and found the device,” Hendrix said. “They then notified us. We secured a perimeter and called the ATF, who is now on the scene.”
Federal officials are saying today’s device is the same type of device found Tuesday evening at the Laird Hill Post Office in Rusk County. ATF officials said Wednesday that device was about a foot long, encased in metal pipe, and was an explosive device.
U.S. Postal Inspector and Dallas region spokesperson Amanda McMurray said the postal service is working in conjunction with the ATF on the case in Troup and all of the now 30 devices found in East Texas blue mail collection boxes in the past month. Twenty-eight of those devices have been described as Molotov-cocktail-type devices with some sort accelerant in a bottle with a wick.
“We are adding additional resources, as is the ATF, and we are actively looking for the person or persons responsible for these actions,” she said.
There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
Updated Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 3:45 p.m. CDT
