The Myerstown, Pa. man police say built a bomb, prompting the evacuation of at least 30 people from a downtown building, did so because he wanted to warn the police about aliens bent on destroying the planet.
David R. Oxenreider, 29, is now facing charges of manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction, causing or risking a catastrophe and terroristic threats for the incident that brought in a state police bomb squad and evacuated the Bahney House, located in the center of the Lebanon County town of 3,000 people Sunday morning.
Charging documents filed by Trooper Mathew Templin of the Pennsylvania State Police at Jonestown state the following:
Bahney House manager Charles Kline called the police around 8:54 a.m. Sunday when one of his tenants, Oxenreider, called him and told him he built an explosive device in his apartment. Kline told Oxenreider to remove the device from the building, which he did, leaving it by a Dumpster near the building.
Troopers got to the scene a few minutes later and took Oxenreider into custody without incident, but this still kicked off a daylong situation with about 30 residents being evacuated from the Bahney House and much of the downtown being blocked off for six hours.
Oxenreider told authorities he had taped together two metal butane tanks and placed them in a green bag. The tanks were wrapped in cloth, filled with metal staples. A hatchet and phone charger were inside the bag, as well, he said.
He told police the device had to be manually detonated and that he was not intending to hurt anyone – he just wanted to get the attention of the police. He told them it was possible for the device to explode if left out in the heat.
The Pennsylvania State Police Hazardous Device and Explosive Section responded to the scene to remove the device and said it could have caused serious injuries had it detonated.
When questioned, Oxenreider told police that in 2014, he had an encounter with aliens, who told him that if humans did not “start being good people” they would destroy the planet with a “nuclear laser beam.”
He said he tried to spread the advice of the aliens, but no one would listen to him, prompting him to construct the explosive device to get the attention of the police.
When officers searched his room the Bahney House, they found materials similar to those used to make the explosive device.