Pipe bomb reported east of Garrison
Pipe bomb reported east of Garrison
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
What could have been deadly wasn’t.
But a report of a pipe bomb six miles east of Garrison Sunday evening brought the Minot bomb squad, a robot to attempt detonation and a brief shutdown of Hwy. 37.
A family viewing the signage at Custer Mine Interpretive Site reported to the county at 4:15 p.m. that they saw a suspicious pipe. McLean County Sheriff’s officers viewed the pipe and reported it to the Minot Hazardous Devices Unit, which handles all reports in northwest North Dakota.
“Ten years ago we probably would have picked it up and screwed off the ends and said what’s this,” said JR Kerzmann, McLean County sheriff’s officer. Since then the area’s law enforcement officers have been exposed to increased incidents of drug trafficking, firearms and been warned of more incidents in the state of illegal explosives. Kerzmann said, “It was dead on the mark. It definitely looked like what a pipe bomb looks like.”
