Fireworks Mortar Suspected After St. Charles Man’s Mailbox Damaged

A St. Charles man awakened by an early morning explosion looked outside his window to see a group of laughing young men, two of whom were approaching his mailbox. When he ran outside to investigate, he heard two back-to-back blasts inside his mailbox.

The incident occurred at 2:57 a.m. Saturday, April 20, 2013, and caused about $50 damage to the mailbox, according to police. The officer investigating the blast found evidence that led him to suspect a mortar used to launch fireworks had been detonated inside the mailbox.

The victim, a 39-year-old resident of the 2500 block of Patricia Lane, told the officer he was awakened by an explosion and that he looked outside his window and saw five young men wearing dark-colored hoodies and blue jeans standing in the street talking loudly and laughing. He estimated the men were about 18, but could offer police no further description.

When two of the men then walked toward his mailbox, the resident ran downstairs and outside the home, where he now could see the men running away. Then, he told police, he heard what sounded like two back-to-back explosions inside his mailbox.

The incident comes nearly a week after a resident of Crabapple Lane reported that someone had damaged a mailbox there. Police determined that a plastic bottle containing an undetermined liquid had burst inside the mailbox. The officer suspected the bottle was a so-called MacGyver bomb, named after the TV series MacGyver (1985-1992), whose main character was known for improvising weapons, including bombs, from such things as household cleaning products and other items.

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