War Story: Bomb in the Office

Written by Jim Cavanaugh – One day I had been out working cases only to return to a package on my desk. Tony was gone and I had no idea what was in the brown paper bag. A small note was left beside it that read, “A lady found this and thinks it may be a bomb. Please check it out.”

I almost wet my pants. I had been to Bomb school in Alabama, but that was for bomb scene examination, not disarming real bombs. My second thought was this was some type of practical joke by another agent, so I better take a look before hitting the panic button. I gently opened the top of the bag and peeked inside. There were three sticks of dynamite wired to an old alarm clock. I think my first words were, “[expletive deleted]!” followed by a run to the reception desk.

The young lady working the phones that day said that a little old lady found the bag at a bus stop and thought she better take it to someone to check out. The bus stop is right outside the Federal Building, so she marched right in and gave it to our little clerk.

Being not the brightest bulb, she buzzed our Supervisor and told him what she had. According to her during a later interview about the incident, she swears the Supervisor told her to put it on my desk since I was the “bomb guy.”

Of course the Supervisor had another story when the inspectors came to find out how a live bomb ended up in an FBI office. He denied telling her what to do and said he “understood” it was a telephone call she was responding to and he told her to take it to a “bomb guy.” Personally I believe the young clerk, but that’s a whole different issue.

I told her at the time to get out of the building and to take all the clerks and typists with her. She panicked and ran like a bat out of hell. I went into the hall and pulled the fire alarm on the wall and then went back inside to check each of the rooms. One of the building security guys came up the stairs and knocked on our inner door when he couldn’t see anyone at the reception desk. His alarm panel had shown the alarm being pulled and he wanted to check it out. I told him what I had, but didn’t take him to it. I told him to evacuate the building and stand by the front for the arrival of the Fire Department. I then called the Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad.

The Bomb Squad was a bunch of former military types that joined the Sheriff’s Office, but all they wanted to do was blow things up. Sherman Markham was the Sergeant in charge and after my call he came right over with his disposal truck. When he went in-service on his radio, he broadcast the fact that there was a potential bomb at the FBI office. Naturally, all the agents in their cars heard this, and all hell started breaking lose. The idiot supervisor called in to see what was happening and I explained it. I could detect a little panic in his voice; probably because he knew there was going to be a lot of explaining to do.

The other agents set up a command post outside the building and prepared for the Sheriff’s crew to arrive. Sherman came in with another guy; both wearing those suits you see in the movies and on TV. I had told him on the phone exactly what I had seen when I looked in the bag, so he had an idea of what to expect. He took a little peek himself and said my favorite word –“[expletive deleted].” Then he told me to get my butt out of there.

Sherman took the bag down to his disposal truck and placed it inside. They took off their space gear and met with all of us agents down the street. He told us the bomb was real and that the only reason it had not detonated was faulty wiring. Whoever had made it did not secure one of the wires to the alarm bell. He said it was not going to blow, but surely could have.

They took it to the bomb range to blow it. I went along just to see. Nice blast and sure would have made a mess out of our office – and two or three other floors. The office investigated for a while but the poor receptionist never got the old lady’s name. The supervisor pled stupidity and there were no prints or other forensic evidence on the bag.