UPDATE Posted Thursday August 14, 2008 -- 4:50 pm
By Zac Schultz
Iowa County: A bomb scare in Iowa County Wednesday turned out to be an explosive device planted in a mailbox.
The explosive device was discovered in a mailbox just after 3 pm Wednesday. A large stretch of Highway K south of Barneveld was closed off while the Dane County Bomb Squad disposed of the device.
The bomb was placed in the third of three mailboxes on the same post. They belong to three different homes that share a driveway. One woman tells NBC 15 these mailboxes are the perfect place to plant a bomb because no one can see their own box from their house.
The people that belong to the box where the bomb was found say they don't believe they were targeted. They think this was a random act.
This is now the second bomb discovered in Iowa County this month.
Kim Burbaugh was fishing along the Wisconsin River on August 1st when two people told him they'd found a bomb. He says it was a small propane tank taped to a steel pipe. "It was a yellow cylinder of gas and a galvanized steel pipe with the caps on it. It had a hole drilled in one end and I could definitely see where somebody lit a fuse and was trying to get it to explode."
Burbaugh eventually moved the bomb to the woods behind his truck and then told a DNR warden.
This bomb was also disposed of by the Dane County Bomb Squad.
Chief Deputy Jon Pepper of the Iowa County Sheriff's Department says he doesn't believe the two bombs are related "due to logistics and because the bombs were definitely different kinds of explosive devices."
If you have information about either of these cases you are asked to call Iowa County Crime Stoppers at 608 935 9090.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
POSTED: Wednesday August, 13, 2008 --- 8:06 p.m.
Barneveld Fire Chief Jeff Jenson says the incident involved a confirmed explosive device at 3543 County Highway K, south of Barneveld.
The device is said to have been found in a mailbox there.
The Dane County bomb squad was called in for assistance.
Deputies were able to detonate the device at the scene.
Roads around the scene were blocked off for three hours, but have since been reopened.
We'll update this story as more information is available.
