Lee County Fla--Police Find Pipe Bomb in Mans Pocket
Man concealed pipe bomb in pocket, detective says
By ADAM KOVAC, akovac@news-press.com
The bulge in the man’s pants looked suspicious to Lee County sheriff’s detectives — possibly a weapon — but Alex Morales assured them it was nothing.
Nothing turned out to be a small pipe bomb, fashioned from a piece of PVC pipe filled with black powder.
A judge on Saturday ordered Morales, 40, held on $5,000 bail on a charge of possession of a destructive device.
Detectives arrested Morales when they found the bomb in his pants pocket Friday after they stopped him from beating his girlfriend, according to a report written by Detective William Richard.
A deputy from the sheriff’s bomb squad later told Richard the device “was functional and it could have potentially been very dangerous,” the report states.
About 2:30 p.m., Richard and another detective, who are assigned to the narcotics unit, were parked near North Tamiami Trail and East North Shore Avenue when they spotted a man and a woman fighting in a convenience store parking lot.
The man dragged the woman into a Chevrolet pickup and drove off, but stopped on East Shore Avenue where they got out and continued the fight, prompting the detectives to break it up.
According to Richard, Morales then started writing down the license number of the detectives’ unmarked cruiser.
That’s when they decided to pat down Morales, who told the detectives he didn’t have anything in his pockets, despite what Richard described as a large, conspicuous bulge.
They discovered the four-to-six-inch plastic pipe, capped off and sealed with glue, fitted on one end with a fuse.
Morales, of Seattle, Wash., but who listed the Motel 6 on U.S. 41 as his Lee County address, told the detectives he found the pipe bomb on the ground, the report said.
Sheriff’s bomb technicians turned the device over to the State Fire Marshal’s laboratory for further examination.
Morales was in the Lee County Jail Saturday night.
