By John Koski
Editor
At approximately 3:40 a.m. Monday an explosion destroyed a roadside mailbox at W902 Shorewood Drive in the Town of East Troy, according to Police Chief Jim Surges.
Approximately two minutes later, he said, a similar explosion destroyed another roadside mailbox in the N8600 block on Stone School Road, about one mile south of Country Road L.
The two mailboxes are less than 1.5 miles apart.
“The magnitude of the explosions was considerably greater than we’ve seen in similar types of incidents in the past,” Surges said.
He noted that the two explosions were more powerful than explosive devices that utilize a plastic soda bottle and household chemicals. Such devices have been used to illegally destroy roadside mailboxes in numerous states for a number of years.
“Although town police have responded to incidents involving some type of explosive device detonated inside a mailbox, the scale of these explosions was much greater,” Surges said.
Because of the intensity of the explosions, he said agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were called in to investigate both crime scenes.
“It sounded like two rapid-fire gunshots,” said Bev Brault who lives two houses down from the home on Shorewood Drive. “It woke me up. It was bang-bang. Just like that. They were maybe a second apart. I thought someone had been shot.”
Surges reported that witnesses who had heard the second explosion just off Stone School Road also reported hearing two rapid-fire explosions.
“We don’t know why that was,” he said, noting that the incident is still under investigation by the ATF.
Surges suggested that the explosive devices might have been some form of fireworks.
“The scale of fireworks you can buy at roadside stands has really ratcheted up in recent years,” he said. “It seems every year they are more and more powerful.”
Surges urged homeowners who live in the vicinity of the two homes to look at the footage on their security cameras to see if they might have recorded anything that would aid the investigation.
Anyone with any information about the incidents can call the Town of East Troy Police Department at (262) 642-3700 or the Walworth County Crime Stoppers at (262) 741-2677.
