Arrest Made After Several Pipe Bombs Found Inside Oxford Circle Home
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Authorities have made an arrest in connection with the discovery of six pipe bombs in the basement an Oxford Circle home.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and Pennsylvania State Police arrested Michael T. Ber, 36, at a home in Roseto, Northampton County around 10 p.m. Thursday night.
Investigators say Ber lives in the Oxford Circle home. He is charged with possessing a destructive device.
Investigators say at this point, there is no evidence to suggest Ber or the devices are connected to any domestic terrorism. Ber is scheduled for a court appearance Friday.
Philadelphia Police say they received a call from a woman who reported the devices were in her basement on the 6100 block of Shisler Street Thursday afternoon.
Once at the scene, officers discovered six pipe bombs in the basement of the residence and called in the ATF, FBI and bomb squad.
While five of the devices were not believed to pose a threat, a sixth was deemed volatile and was detonated.
Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan says, "It did contain energetic material, we did confirm that. That's why we made the decision, since we are in residential area, to transport the remaining suspicious objects up to our headquarters. "
Officers used a bomb-squad robot to get the rest of the devices out of the house.
Nearby homes were evacuated during the incident, but residents were later allowed to return after police cleared the scene. Nearby Laura H. Carnell Middle School was also briefly placed on lockdown, but students were given the all-clear and released on time Thursday.
A parent comments, "It's really scary. It's not like they can replace our kids."
There is no word on why the pipe bombs were built.
