Man charged in Olney pipe bomb incident

OLNEY (WTXF) - Police say a man has been charged in connection with a pipe bomb incident in Olney.

According to police, 34-year-old Sam Chey is charged with possession of weapons of mass destruction, risking catastrophe and prohibited offensive weapons.

It was just after 10 a.m. Wednesday morning when authorities arrived at the home to serve a routine eviction notice.

"They encountered a woman at the door who said try not to touch anything in the basement," said Sheriff Department spokesman Joe Blake.

But a cleanup crew hired by the sheriff's office went to the basement of the North Fairhill Street home and quickly made what could have been a potentially explosive discovery in these two bags.

"They brought out two devices that apparently were either part of a pipe bomb or could have been part of a pipe bomb," Blake told FOX 29.

Neighbors watched as the bomb squad, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security investigators arrived. Sources say they found materials to assemble pipe bombs, parts for guns, a silencer and other dangerous material.

What were believed to be two black powder pipe bombs were removed from the two-story home.

"They weren't fused or anything like that," Blake explained. "We brought in a dog from the sheriff's K-9 Unit, and the dog did sniff some kind of explosive material."

The woman living at the home says it was owned by her ex-husband.

Bomb technicians took the potentially explosive material and other items to the bomb squad's headquarters to analyze them. Officials say none of the pipe bombs had been completely assembled. Police took one man who lived in the basement of the home from the scene for questioning.

When asked if she knew the devices were in the basement, the woman who lived there simply said "No."