PERRYOPOLIS, Pa. – A bomb squad blew up a metal pipe that had a battery, wires, rope and an electrical switch, only to realize it was an eighth-grade science project.
“An electromagnetic fishing pole,” Allegheny County bomb squad Sgt. Robert Clark said, holding the contraption with the battery blown off.
A clerk found the device – made from 3 feet of half-inch metal pipe – near the greeting cards display at a drugstore on Thursday.
Police Chief Roger Beadling said he got within 6 feet of it and decided not to take any chances. “It definitely appeared to be some kind of explosive device,” he said.
The bomb squad used a robot to examine the device, then destroyed it.
A 10th-grader at Frazier High School said the science project is something eighth-graders do every year. “You have to make it so it can pick up metal paper clips, but you can’t use magnets,” Tiffany Burton said. “I hated that project.”
Jim Shahan, owner of a pizza shop a few doors away, said if he had seen the device, he might have saved everyone a few anxious hours.
“I just helped make one for my daughter,” he said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
