NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Police found bomb-making material at two homes in Moorestown, Burlington County, over the weekend. Authorities are working to track down the teenager they believe made them.
Moorestown Police Director Patrick Reilly Jr. said the suspect, a Moorestown High School senior who turned 18 over the weekend, was at a house on Cove Road to help other kids with a science project. There, officials found materials to build an IED, or improvised explosive device.
“This never became a device. It was just material that was volatile,” Reilly said.
Bomb experts from the State Police helped safely detonate it at the Burlington County hazardous materials facility. Police then searched the teenager’s home and found a lab in the basement.
“That had additional explosive material, so that was then removed. Because of the volatility of that material, it was detonated on scene in their backyard,” Reilly said. He said the parents were unaware of what was going on in the basement.
Nearby homes were evacuated.
“I heard it, I saw the smoke in the driveway, and it was really quite alarming at that point, and they weren’t sharing any information, so no one really knew what was going on,” said Lisa Lee, who lives in the neighborhood, to our newsgathering partners at NBC10.
Federal officials are still working to locate the teenager. Reilly says so far they have not found any evidence to suggest he was planning an attack or wanted to do any harm.
No one was injured, and no other property is under investigation.
Officials say there is no threat to the public.
“There was no targeted person, targeted area, based on a social media scrub, as well as no material in his home that showed he was angry or anyone was targeted, so that’s kind of where we’re at at this point," Reilly said.