BOTTLE BOMBS: Police Look For Mailbox Vandals

Urbandale police are looking for vandals after two blown up mailboxes in the past week.  The vandals are using homemade bombs made out of pop bottles and household chemicals.  They can cause some serious damage to property and people.

Angela Pittman’s mailbox was blown to pieces, and some of those pieces struck a passing car.

“I just went to bed around 10:30, I was up watching the Olympics and about 10:40 I heard a really loud noise.”  Pittman explains, ”I could have opened the mailbox the next day and it might have gone off then and someone could have seriously been harmed.  I mean this was all over the place.  It was scattered so if someone had been hit by this they could have been seriously injured and that’s what upsets me the most.”

Police say blowing up mailboxes isn’t just dangerous, it is a federal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.   If you find a bottle in your mailbox do not touch it, just call police.