ATF at site of Lancaster County explosives theft: 'Confident all stolen materials recovered'
UPDATE: Investigators remained on the scene Saturday in Marietta, conducting more than 250 new interviews and doing additional searches where the explosives were found the day before.
No additional explosives were recovered, however.
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The ATF, through an email on Saturday evening, said this: "After analyzing information from the interviews, investigators are increasingly confident that the original amount of explosives reported as stolen was erroneous.
"ATF is continuing to work on confirming the discrepancy, however, we are increasingly confident that all stolen materials have been recovered. The investigation is ongoing."
Friday's reporting:
Some of the dynamite stolen from a pipeline site in Marietta has been recovered, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Charlene Hennessy, ATF spokeswoman, said in an email shortly before 7 p.m. Friday that "dynamite and blasting caps have been recovered from a park about a mile away from where they were stolen from."
Investigators found the blasting caps and dynamite cartridges floating in a creek under a railroad overpass at Riverfront Park in East Donegal Township, Lancaster County, a news release states.
A tip that allowed for the materials to be recovered came from a passerby who saw something out of place and called it in, Hennessy said.
In total, investigators recovered 320 cartridges of dynamite, which weighed in total about 352 pounds, and 404 blasting caps, the news release states.
“The detonators and dynamite recovered today are now stored in law enforcement explosives magazines in the area. The inventory of the missing explosives and blasting caps was based on the paperwork provided by the contractor after the report of the theft occurred,” Special Agent in Charge Donald Robinson said in a news release. “We are making every attempt to ensure there are no additional explosive materials still unaccounted for. We are investigating the possibly the inventory conducted earlier this week was based on inaccurate acquisition and disposition records.”
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A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the identification and/or the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the theft, the news release states.
On Monday, the ATF announced in a news release that 640 pounds of dynamite had been stolen from Gregory General Contracting Co. in Marietta. Later, the ATF updated the quantity of dynamite that was missing to 704 pounds.
The inventory confirmed 16 cases of dynamite were missing. Each case holds 40 cartridges (or sticks) weighing 1.1 pounds each, the ATF said. Also missing were 400 blasting caps.
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The stolen explosives had been stored inside a locked truck trailer which was left on site at Gregory General Contacting after workers left on Friday, April 13. The worksite security company did not discover the theft until Monday, after noticing that the trailer door was ajar with the locks missing, according to a news release.
Investigators have conducted about 300 interviews of employees and other witnesses, the news release states. Authorities will continue to conduct interviews through the weekend.
Anyone with information may call the ATF hotline at 1-888-ATF-BOMB or 911.
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