(The Philadelphia Inquirer posted the following article on its website on June 10.)
FRANKFORT, Pa. — Workers from the city Community Life Improvement Program were cutting grass yesterday near a railroad overpass in Frankford when they ran a mower over a pipe bomb left in the high grass. The device did not explode.
“It was a bona-fide pipe bomb,” Police Inspector William Colarulo said. The workers found it around 11:45 a.m. on Butler Street east of Frankford Avenue and notified police. The department’s ordnance disposal squad and counter-terrorism bureau responded. Colarulo said it was not immediately determined how long the device had been at the site, about 30 feet west of a freight overpass.
“The device is now considered inert, and it was packaged, and it is going to be processed for evidence,” Colarulo said. He described it as an 8-inch section of PVC pipe with a protruding fuse, packed with gunpowder and cotton balls. The device was “extremely dangerous,” he added.
“We’re all lucky that it did not detonate when the individuals ran over it. If it did go off, it could have caused serious bodily injury.”