Homemade Bomb found in Muskingum County

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Sheriff’s office responded to a call of a homemade explosive device yesterday.

Sheriff Matt Lutz said they received a tip of a homemade bomb at 5807 Sugargrove Road and upon investigation found it was a type of homemade firework. He said the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called in to dispose of the device and that it was removed from the property and safely detonated at 12:18 a.m. Thursday morning. Lutz said the explosion did shake a few houses and that in future they send out a reverse 911 call to alert residents.

“They kind of underestimated the bomb shake so we’ll probably try to do a reverse 911 call or a reverse call out to make sure people know that when we’re doing this in the future,” said Lutz.

Lutz said the property where the homemade explosive was found was thoroughly searched but did not locate anything else other than the homemade explosive. He said nothing was really in danger and that they believe an ongoing dispute is what lead the explosive being left on the property.

“Nothing was ever really in danger. The residence where this was put, it’s an ongoing type dispute that we think is involved with that so there’s a little bit more to it than just this random explosive showing up at this house,” said Lutz.

Lutz said the investigation is ongoing but they do have a person of interest and are working to get charges on the case.