The devices consisted of a chemical mixture in two-liter soda bottles, according to the sheriff’s office.

Bruce Cottingim was stopped by two Butler County sheriff's deputies while going to his mailbox Saturday.

"They told me that there was a suspected explosive device in my mailbox and that ... they were going to disarm it," he said.

A remote-controlled robot was called in to remove the device and a sheriff's deputy shot the device to detonate it.

"It's scary," Cottingim said. "Had that went off when I was at the mailbox that would not have been a very good sight."

Authorities are investigating the devices.

"All the victims, the property owners all have teenage kids, so there's the thought maybe that it was a teenage kid trying to go around and play a prank on their friends," said Capt. Robert Schneider of the Preble County Sheriff's Office.

The two-liter bottles were to be sent to a lab for forensic testing.