Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Authorities Suspect Fireworks Used In Mailbox Explosion

  A resident of the Appleton area summoned law enforcement officials to investigate Monday morning when he went to his mailbox to find it had exploded and his mail had burned.

  Victim Roy Lee Weigart, Jr., reported the incident through the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department around 7:00 a.m. He reported that he had walked to the mailbox to find it was lying on the ground, mangled, and that mail both inside and outside the box had been burned.

  Deputies noted that the front and back had been blown off the mailbox, and that the sides had expanded outward to the point that they had pulled away from the base. Although they report some type of device was used to vandalize the mailbox, they report they were unable to find any remnants of that device.

  Deputies noticed that someone had been igniting fireworks in the roadway approximately ¼ mile away. They suspect that a fireworks device may have been used in the vandalism event, as well.