A call from a Florida woman about a bomb she found in her home led to the arrest of her Army veteran husband accused of leaving an improvised explosive device at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility near St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark Edward Allen, 60, of St. Petersburg, a patient at that facility, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the IED found at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center May 29. according to court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The device was found around 1 p.m. near the east entrance of the sprawling facility, near a Veterans Benefits Administration regional office. The incident interrupted traffic, but otherwise did not affect any patient treatment or other operations. No one was hurt in the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
VA Police, the Tampa Police Department Bomb Squad and the FBI were among those to respond, according to a criminal complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Christopher Franck, who handled IEDs while serving as a captain in the Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After responding to the call, Franck and the TPD bomb squad used an X-ray tool to examine the device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe X-ray revealed, among other components, a 9-volt battery, electric wires, an improvised initiator, an unknown powder , and a clothes-pin switch,\u201d Franck wrote in his complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The components, he wrote, \u201care commonly used to construct improvised explosive devices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After bomb techs used a tool to disarm the device, they used a robot to dissemble it and examine its contents, which included an unknown black powder, which was collected by the FBI for further examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the FBI continued to investigate the incident, they collected surveillance video from the hospital, as well as a Wawa convenience store across the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The video showed a white male, with a long gray beard and wearing a baseball hat with the Army logo leaving the hospital facility shortly before 5 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two days later, the TPD bomb squad was dispatched to deal with another bomb, this one found in a home in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A woman, whose name was not released in the court document, called the St. Petersburg Police Department to report that Allen, her husband, had made a bomb at their home. She told police that while her husband was sleeping, she put the IED from her home in the trunk of her car and drove it to a friend\u2019s house \u201cbecause she was scared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bomb techs responding to that device used an X-ray tool and found, among other components, a tube filled with a light bulb, designed to initiate an explosion, electric wires, and an unknown powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again, Franck wrote, the device appeared to be an IED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After examining that IED, the FBI determined it likely came from the same person who left the bomb at the VA facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Franck took a still from the Wawa surveillance video and showed it to Allen\u2019s wife, who confirmed that it was her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wife said Allen was an Army veteran who goes to the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center, located on the campus, for treatment and that he had a scheduled medical appointment there during that week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allen was arrested and taken to the Pinellas County Jail, where he is being held without bail on a federal warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He made his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday, charged with the possession of unregistered explosives. If convicted, Allen faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mark Edward Allen, 60, of St. Petersburg, a patient at that facility, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the IED found at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center May 29. according to court documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":93590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,89,12,26,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3068],"class_list":["post-55502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QBZNFABMPNC2PKYWQKLVFV4A3Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2019\/06\/05\/call-from-terrified-wife-leads-to-arrest-of-army-vet-husband-accused-of-placing-ied-at-a-va-facility-in-florida\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n