Dateline: June 5, 2003

Possible pipe bomb found in trash truck 

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Bomb squad personnel were called to Clarendon last week after a suspected pipe bomb was found in a city trash truck.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said city employees James Watt and Joe Shadle discovered the suspicious object snared on the truck after it emptied its load at the Clarendon Recycling Center last Tuesday. They immediately contacted local law enforcement.

“It was about eight inches of one-inch galvanized pipe,” Sheriff Blackburn said. “It had wires coming out of it and was wrapped in duct tape.”

The sheriff said he didn’t think it was dangerous, but contacted the Amarillo Police Department’s Bomb Squad to err on the side of caution. APD arrived within an hour and blew up the device under controlled conditions.

“It didn’t have any powder or explosive material in it,” Blackburn said.

Officials say they are still investigating the origin of the device; but Blackburn says since the unarmed device was discarded in the trash, no crime was apparently committed.

“Now if they had put it somewhere – like the school or a business – that would have been a crime,” he said. “In that case, a hoax bomb would be treated just as serious as a real bomb.”

Blackburn said his office doesn’t get many calls on bombs, but the APD told him they receive about 50 such reports each year.