Mike_Dumond
Gold Member
A Dover-Foxcroft man was thankful Monday for the quick glance he stole into the trunk of an abandoned car before he tipped it over with his tractor.
Tucked inside the trunk of the car was 50 pounds of dynamite.
Richard Dyer had spent Monday cleaning up some of the 100 acres that he and his son, Shannon, purchased last November off Route 15 when he made the discovery. The property was owned previously by Carl and Donna Vainio. Donna Vainio was awarded the land in a divorce settlement and had sold the property to the Dyers.
"I was kind of lucky because I was going to turn the car over to see if there was a motor in it," Dyer said.
After spying the dynamite, which he said was unstable because it was "bleeding" nitroglycerine, Dyer quickly called the Piscataquis County Sheriff's Department, which in turn alerted the Maine State Police Bomb Squad and the state Fire Marshal's Office.
Investigator Scott Richardson of the Fire Marshal's Office, and Sgt. Frank Poirier and Trooper Shawn Whalen of the bomb squad converged on the scene from points throughout the state by late afternoon.
Richardson said Tuesday that the dynamite, which was wrapped in plastic and stored inside a box, was very unstable and was leaking. Because of its condition, the dynamite was neutralized and then burned, but not before the officers recorded the serial numbers. Richardson said they intend to trace the dynamite to the original owner and plan to prosecute. That person could face charges of improper storage and-or criminal use of explosives, he said.
A dog trained in the detection of explosives searched the other vehicles that were abandoned on the property, but no more were found.
Guilford firefighters assisted at the scene by wetting down the area while the dynamite burned.
Dyer, who said he was familiar with dynamite because of his military training, was glad that a local salvage operator had declined an earlier invitation to take the vehicles. And the Dover-Foxcroft resident said he was very lucky to have stopped short of rolling the vehicle onto its top.
"It could have been a big mistake," he said.
Tucked inside the trunk of the car was 50 pounds of dynamite.
Richard Dyer had spent Monday cleaning up some of the 100 acres that he and his son, Shannon, purchased last November off Route 15 when he made the discovery. The property was owned previously by Carl and Donna Vainio. Donna Vainio was awarded the land in a divorce settlement and had sold the property to the Dyers.
"I was kind of lucky because I was going to turn the car over to see if there was a motor in it," Dyer said.
After spying the dynamite, which he said was unstable because it was "bleeding" nitroglycerine, Dyer quickly called the Piscataquis County Sheriff's Department, which in turn alerted the Maine State Police Bomb Squad and the state Fire Marshal's Office.
Investigator Scott Richardson of the Fire Marshal's Office, and Sgt. Frank Poirier and Trooper Shawn Whalen of the bomb squad converged on the scene from points throughout the state by late afternoon.
Richardson said Tuesday that the dynamite, which was wrapped in plastic and stored inside a box, was very unstable and was leaking. Because of its condition, the dynamite was neutralized and then burned, but not before the officers recorded the serial numbers. Richardson said they intend to trace the dynamite to the original owner and plan to prosecute. That person could face charges of improper storage and-or criminal use of explosives, he said.
A dog trained in the detection of explosives searched the other vehicles that were abandoned on the property, but no more were found.
Guilford firefighters assisted at the scene by wetting down the area while the dynamite burned.
Dyer, who said he was familiar with dynamite because of his military training, was glad that a local salvage operator had declined an earlier invitation to take the vehicles. And the Dover-Foxcroft resident said he was very lucky to have stopped short of rolling the vehicle onto its top.
"It could have been a big mistake," he said.
