NEWARK, Ohio — Authorities are investigating after two explosive devices were found in a vehicle following a crash in Newark on Tuesday.
Newark police and fire crews located the bombs after responding to a crash at approximately 9:20 a.m. in a neighborhood on East Prospect Street. According to Sgt. Chuck Wilhelm with the Newark Division of Police, a man crashed into a white sedan and then got out of the car and fled the area.
“We just got dispatched on a hit skip accident that someone had struck a parked vehicle and when we got there, witnesses told us that the driver exited the vehicle and ran,” Wilhelm said.
Upon discovering what authorities originally thought was a pipe bomb in the car, they evacuated houses in the surrounding area and called in the Columbus Bomb Squad.
Officers discovered there were actually two explosives in the car. The bomb squad was tasked with disposing of the bombs.
“I was very scared and very nervous, because she and her little baby was in the house and our pets,” says Carolyn Igo, a South End neighborhood resident.
Carolyn lives in the home outside of the car crash. It was her daughter’s parked car that was hit in the incident.
“She called me letting me know there was a bomb in front of my house and I thought she was making the whole thing up,” she said.
She explains she went directly to her daughter and removed her from the scene.
“I came back and asked an officer if I could get her out of the house and he allowed her to come back out the back door, jump the back fence and get out that way,” Igo said.
The Licking County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team surrounded a nearby home and two men peacefully emerged and were taken in for questioning.
Though no one was hurt in the incident, the alarming day still has residents on edge.
“The biggest thing that ever happened around here was a drunk driver hit the telephone pole,” Igo said.
Police had evacuated this neighborhood for about four hours. They let residents return to their homes once the scene was contained.