Explosion from homemade tennis ball bomb rattles Milwaukee neighborhood
WISN, KOMO, SURVEILLANCE VIDEO, MYEVERETTNEWS.COM, CNN
By Nick Bohr
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MILWAUKEE (WISN) — A homemade tennis ball bomb exploded late Saturday night near 33rd Street and Pabst Avenue in Milwaukee, damaging a car and several garages and leaving the neighborhood shaken.
The blast sent bits of tennis ball scattering across the alley, penetrating the siding, and was captured on video. In the video, a Honda Pilot stops in a dark alley just before 11 p.m., a passenger exits, appears to place something on a parked car, and drives off as the object detonates.
“It was very loud,” said Britney Ortiz Djuric, who came out of her house to find her family vehicle heavily damaged.
“My husband was in the garage, where we have gas tanks. And if it would’ve been any closer, we could’ve had a serious issue, I would’ve lost my husband,” she said.
“There were pieces of tennis ball everywhere. They caused damage to our vehicle; this is our family vehicle. They also caused damage to our garage, to our neighbor’s garage, and everyone is pretty shook up about it around here.”
The vehicle’s hood and fender are heavily damaged, the metal twisted from the force of the blast.
Ortiz Djuric has spent the last two days gathering video evidence, including footage showing the same Honda Pilot on nearby Pabst Avenue before turning into her alley.
“I have no idea who would want to do this. This seems very random. I’m not sure who could possibly have done this,” she said.
Milwaukee police responded to the scene, collecting evidence and referring to the tennis ball bomb as an “illegal firework” in their report. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has previously issued warnings about these homemade devices, classifying them as “an illegal destructive device,” with the ability to be lethal.
“It was thrown right here on top of the car, and it looks like it maybe got its way under the hood once it exploded, but this is pretty strong stuff here, so it was a pretty big explosion, the whole windshield is broken, there’s glass throughout the car,” Ortiz Djuric said.
Police have not yet identified the individuals responsible for the explosion and are asking for the public’s help in identifying those involved.
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