Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, July 17, 2009
(GREENE COUNTY) - One business owner was left a little shocked when a customer came to him and told him that the building might explode yesterday morning.
Tony Byers, five year owner of the Crossroads Cafe near State Road 45 and State Road 445 intersection.
Byers told WBIW News that "basically a customer went to the outside bathroom and noticed that there was a small, red, zip bag in the sink of the bathroom, and it was unzipped, opened up, and he looked inside and noticed that there were some pretty weird object in there. He automatically came inside and asked for the phone, and he called 911. I ran out there and checked it out, and their was PVC inside, and that is what they made the pipe bomb out of."
Inside the bag were reportedly large mount of screws and washers designed to be similar as shrapnel mainly to harm people nearby. Although shocked at first, Byers remained mellow during most of the situation. He wasn't sure of the severity of the event at the time. While being questioned by Police, Tony couldn't think of any reason why some one would do something like this to his restaurant.
Byers later told the station "the police officer said, just as one scenario, that maybe whoever made the bombs planned to take them over to the bank; the restaurant is right beside the bank. But maybe they were goinf to use it to scare the bank for money and chickened out and through it in my bathroom."
Luckily, if the bank was indeed the destination of the pipe bombs, they did not reach their location.
Mike Hasler, Chief Deputy of Greene County Sheriff's Department informed WBIW "the restaurant was evacuated and a perimeter set around it, it was secured, we contacted the Indiana State Police, they responded and used a robot to remove the items and once they got them outside they were made safe or detonated"
The situation was under control at around 2:30 PM, and the restaurant opening up again at 3:00 PM.
If you have any information on the event, contact the Greene County Sheriff's Office at 812-384-4411.
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