Man Upset With Penile Surgery Mails Bomb
Friday, April 15, 2005
(04-15) 16:00 PDT Stevens, Pa. (AP) --
A man allegedly unhappy with penile-enlargement surgery he underwent mailed explosives to a Chicago plastic surgeon, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
Blake R. Steidler, 24, allegedly made an explosive device that included a model-rocket engine igniter inside a jewelry box, the federal indictment said.
Steidler drove to North Bloomfield, Ohio, on Feb. 10 and mailed the box, but then drive home to Lancaster County, called 911, and turned himself in, according to the indictment.
East Cocalico Township Police, who received the 911 call, apprehended Steidler and turned him over to federal authorities, who were holding him in Philadelphia, officials said.
Authorities called police in Ohio, who recovered the box from the mail and destroyed it. Special Agent John Hageman, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms office in Philadelphia, said the device "should have functioned and produced an explosion. ... There may have been shrapnel."
The federal grand jury indictment charged Steidler with using a weapon of mass destruction, sending explosives through the mail, interstate transport of an explosive, and related offenses.
