CAULFIELD, Mo., May 21 (UPI) -- FBI agents and police in south-central Missouri Tuesday investigated a possible "copycat" pipe bomb found rigged to explode in a rural mailbox near Caulfield.
The device was found Monday by a woman who said she saw something shiny when she went to check on a bluebird nest that had been built inside the mailbox.
The Springfield News-Leader said the 6-inch steel pipe had two holes drilled in one end and black and yellow wires hanging out. A 9-volt battery was attached to the black wire and rope was tied to the yellow wire so that pulling the mailbox door open would trigger an explosion.
The Missouri Highway patrol closed a section of highway two miles east of Caulfield for nearly five hours until the device was safely removed. FBI laboratory technicians were trying to determine whether it was filled with gunpowder.
Howell County Sheriff Bill Shepard said officers has no suspects yet.
Authorities reportedly suspect the device was planted by someone trying to copy accused pipe bomber Lucas John Helder, the 22-year-old University of Wisconsin-Stout student arrested earlier this month and charged with planting pipe bombs that injured seven people in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.
