Holmesburg residents puzzled after pipe bomb found behind church
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Police Department removed an 18-inch PVC pipe bomb Sunday afternoon near a Holmesburg cemetery behind St. Dominic's Catholic Church.
Neighbors told CBS Philadelphia say they're frightened and they're looking for answers.
Alan Serge is looking for answers after a pipe bomb was found and recovered by Philadelphia police and the bomb squad within walking distance from his front porch.
"My neighbor always takes his dog every day for a walk in the graveyard and he said he seen something that look like a PVC pipe with two ends on it," Serge said. "He touched it and he moved it out of the walkway and he said, 'Oh God that looks like a pipe bomb.' So, he called 911."
On Sunday, behind St. Dominic's Cemetery, the Philadelphia police bomb squad recovered an 18-inch PVC pipe bomb with capped ends, black powder on it and unknown powder inside of it.
The Serge family lives across from the Catholic church's cemetery, church and school.
"It's pretty scary if it was a friggin' pipe bomb," Serge said. "I mean I'm not letting my kids go over there, I know that. That's for a fact."
A few streets away, Brian Boedecker has a similar feeling about the situation with his kids.
"We used to be OK with like just monitoring them inside, letting them play out here and run in and out of the house," Boedecker said, "but when stuff like this is going on, hey you never know."
Boedecker has lived in the Holmesburg neighborhood for more than 20 years.
"Pipe bombs back here? No, not at all," Boedecker said. "There's many things but not no pipe bombs."
Police say the device is under analysis and bomb techs are working backward to de-assemble it.