Her mailbox made for an easy target on a remote stretch of Green Mill Road in Finksburg, and Amie Howard knows what young pranksters can be capable of, but then she took a closer look.
“We were really looking at the damage, and I realized that it was some type of explosive that was in our mailbox that kind of blew out the back of it, and all the remnants were left inside the mailbox,” said Howard, “So then it was kind of like, ‘Oh, that seems a little bit more intense than just a baseball bat or something like that.’”
Any fear over whether it may have been an improvised explosive device was put to rest when investigators with the State Fire Marshal’s Office ruled it was simply fireworks.
Within a week’s time, the same scene repeated itself with exploding mailboxes on nearby Carrollton, Niner and Bollinger roads, and investigators are taking this seriously.
“What we really care about is if one of these do not explode, the homeowner would actually be going out there and come across this and potentially be handling it and it explode then,” said Sr. Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire.
While Amie Howard’s mailbox happened to be destroyed first, the fact that whoever is behind the destruction has struck again gives her a measure of solace knowing it wasn’t something personal.
“It makes me feel that we weren’t just a target for some kind of reason, in which I couldn’t put together why or who that would be,” said Howard, “Unfortunately, there’s more damage, but it makes me feel like it was just, you know, luck of the draw kind of thing.”
If you have any information, which could help investigators, you’re asked to call the Northeast Regional Arson Tipline at 410-386-3050.
