Bomb-making materials found in Moorestown, N.J., homes
“Something went kaboom! Everything shook. It scared the crap out of me,” a resident said.
It was around 4 a.m. Sunday when Lisa Lee woke up to flashing red lights outside her bedroom window in a quiet neighborhood in Moorestown and thought police had pulled over a drunk driver.
But just as the sun was coming up, she knew it was something more. Trucks from every department imaginable pulled up. “There were fire trucks, an ambulance, multiple police cars, and other like unmarked tactical trucks,” she said.
Curious, she stepped outside to walk her dog near Cove Road and East Oak Drive.
“Do I have something to worry about?” she said she asked firefighters. “Is it a gas leak or some kind of contamination?”
“No,” a firefighter told her. “We would have evacuated everyone.”
A little later that morning, she stood outside her home and saw officials detonate what appeared to be a bomb in a nearby driveway.
“Something went kaboom!” Lee said. “Everything shook. It scared the crap out of me.”
It turned out that materials for an improvised explosive device (IED) were found inside two homes. Based on information they had received, the New Jersey State Police Bomb Unit, the NJSP Hazardous Materials Response Unit, and Burlington County Hazardous Waste Department officials came to a home on Cove Road and removed the material.
Due to its volatility, it was detonated at a nearby public works yard. The residents of Cove Road are not suspects, according to authorities, because someone else brought the materials there.
After that home was cleared, a search warrant was obtained for a home on nearby East Oak Avenue, where bomb technicians found more IED materials that they detonated on the scene.
Lee saw the materials blow up on the driveway. “I heard it go off and saw all the smoke,” Lee said. “It was really unnerving to say the least.”
“It’s just really surprising that something like that would happen here. This is a quiet neighborhood where everyone is out walking their dogs or exercising.”
Agencies responding include the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, New Jersey State Police, Burlington County Department of Hazardous Waste, Moorestown Police Department, Moorestown Fire Department, Moorestown EMS, and Moorestown Public Works.
The suspect is an underage Moorestown resident, authorities said.
The investigation is ongoing and the prosecutor’s office is reviewing all information to determine criminal charges.
Anyone with information, should call Moorestown detectives at 856-234-8300.