ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALIDA, Colo. – An FBI official said a pipe bomb found in a Colorado mailbox Monday appeared linked to 16 others found in three Midwestern states, raising concerns that the domestic terrorism spree is spreading West.
“We have a rather disturbing pattern where the subjects are moving West rather quickly,” FBI agent Mark Mershon said. “We’re looking for someone who is mobile. We’re moving mountains to determine who that is.”
A resident found the device in a sandwich bag with a piece of folded paper and alerted authorities. It did not explode.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms spokesman said a second Colorado pipe bomb was found late Monday in a field about 35 miles east of Salida. He said it did not fit the characteristics of the other devices.
Another mailbox bomb was found in rural Nebraska on Monday, the eighth discovered in the state since the domestic terrorism spree began last week.
The latest Nebraska pipe bomb was found near Hastings in the mailbox of someone who had been away for the weekend, authorities said. It did not explode. There was no immediate word on whether it was accompanied by the same anti-government note found with the other devices.
The FBI said Monday that the first 15 bombs clearly came from the same source, but officials have not said whether they are searching for an individual or a group.
The latest bombs were found as hundreds of nervous letter carriers went back to work across the Midwest. Rural residents in at least four Midwest states and Colorado were asked to leave their mailboxes open or remove the mailbox door as a safety measure.
Jim Pelzer wore safety goggles and earplugs as he delivered mail in Tipton, Iowa, where one of the bombs exploded Friday. The protective gear was a gift from his wife.
“My feeling was when we had 9-11 and the anthrax scare, I was a little concerned about my job safety,” Pelzer said. “But now I’m intimidated and scared.”
The bombs in Iowa and Illinois were found in locations that form a large, uneven ring about 70 miles in diameter. The Nebraska bomb sites form a large ring of about 90 miles across.
The areas are separated by about 350 miles. Salida is more than 400 miles from the Nebraska sites.
The typewritten note found with the bombs read, in part: “If the government controls what you want to do they control what you can do. … I’m obtaining your attention in the only way I can. More info is on its way. More ‘attention getters’ are on the way.”
Profiling experts have said whoever wrote the note is probably an older American man.
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