Malicious intentions unlikely in pipe bomb incident

On November 9, 2024By Pranco

HARBOR SPRINGS – Michigan State Police dispersed a pipe bomb discovered at a Harbor Springs thrift store Wednesday afternoon.

Carol Grissom, manager of the New Beginnings Thrift Shop, said an employee was sorting merchandise when she found an item that seemed strange to her. After speaking with another employee, they decided to call the police, thinking they had found a pipe bomb.

Michigan State Police responded to the call and requested the building be evacuated for safety reasons. The Michigan State Police Bomb Squad then arrived on scene, as did the Michigan State Police canine unit.

Police used an X-ray to determine that one of the two pipe bombs contained a fuse and powder.

Grissom said the store receives many deliveries from a larger truck, so there is no way to know who donated the item. She said police indicated there was no reason to believe there was any malicious intent.

After the items are donated, the boxes are sorted by departments before being searched to go to the floor.

Grissom was not in the store when the pipe bomb was found, but returned to see people had been evacuated.

She said staff are trained to evacuate in the event of a fire, but the store had no plan for this type of incident because it was the first of its kind for them.

“They handled it very professionally. They didn’t waste any time asking whether it was real or not,” Grissom said of her co-workers, who called police. “It was like, ‘Let’s be safe. Let’s be safe, and we’ll ask questions if the police get here.'”

While he was concerned about the find, Grissom said there was probably no malicious intent, and what happened was that someone was just cleaning out an old garage and threw things they wanted to get rid of into the box without taking too good care of it to watch.

– Contact reporter Karly Graham at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.