Man drops off 4 pipe bombs at police station

Athens police investigated a suspicious package Thursday morning. (Credit: Athens-Clarke County Police Department)

Athens police investigated a suspicious package Thursday morning. (Credit: Athens-Clarke County Police Department)

An Athens-Clarke County police station was closed for a few hours Thursday after a concerned citizen brought in a suspicious package that was later determined to be pipe bombs, police said.

A man walked into the station “with several pipes with wiring coming out of the pipes,” police spokesman Epfanio Rodriguez said.

Jail Road and the east precinct entrance was closed shortly before 11 a.m. and a bomb squad was called to the scene.

The device was made of four PVC pipes with fuses and wiring, so they “were legitimate pipe bombs,” Rodriguez said.

The bombs belonged to the man’s recently deceased father, who had worked with explosives in the military.

The police station opened again by 1:30 p.m. and the bomb squad took the pipe bombs to a local landfill for detonation, Rodriguez said.