Pipe Bombs Detonated Safely

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April 19, 2006, around 1:30pm, Harlem-Roscoe Firefighters were called to the Main Street Square Shopping Center located at the corner of Main Street and Williams Drive in Roscoe. Firefighters were to help the Roscoe Police and Winnebago County Sheriff's Officers to secure and evacuate the area around suspicious items found in the parking lot. An ambulance was also staged nearby. It would be over three hours before the firefighters were released from the scene.

It seems shoppers had reported a suspicious man traveling on foot and pulling a cart with his belongings. Upon checking on the man, local police found explosive devices.

The area around the devices was secured and the man taken into custody. Shoppers were kept in the stores at the shopping center. Kinnikinnick School students were also kept safely in the school and sent out the opposite side of the building when school was let out.

The Winnebago County's Hazardous Devices and Explosives Squad was called in and safely detonated, on site, what was found to be a couple of small homemade pipe bombs.

Police report that a Tuan Nguyen has been charged with possession of incendiary devices.