TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) – A discovery that put a community on edge, when around nine o’clock Tuesday morning a groundskeeper at Collett Park stumbled upon a suspicious device.

“She then transported that item to the park across from the school here where she met up with another parks employee. Upon viewing this item they contacted dispatch, and police was sent to the scene.”

The discovery prompted Ouabache Elementary and surrounding areas to go on lockdown.

“The normal process is locate the suspicious device, evacuate or secure the area, and then call the EOD, and that’s exactly what happened here,” said Officer Joe Watts, with the Indiana State Police.

After another sweep of Collett Park a second device was found.

“We have all the proper equipment to render them safe, make them safe to collect as evidence, and making sure they are safe to not harm someone,” said Watts.

To render those devices safe numerous steps have to be taken.

“They X-Rayed those devices with our special equipment, were able to determine what they thought they would be going in to, and then they put on their bomb suits and approach the devices,” said Watts.

Upon inspection the technician determined both were indeed homemade bombs.

“It’s a homemade bomb. It had a blast radius of maybe 50 yards if it functioned as designed,” said Chad Hilton, a Bomb Technician with the Indiana State Police Bomb Squad.

Both bombs were dismantled and rendered safe. No one was injured.

“It’s a bad deal. These kids or people or whoever is making these devices if it did function as designed and exploded it could hurt a lot of people,” said Hilton.

So, what should you do if you notice a potentially dangerous device?

“Typically if the public finds something that is out of place or suspicious, or they think it might be bad. I’m not saying it has to be a cartoon bomb with a fuse sticking out of it. Anything that the feel is out of place the hair on the back of their head stands up, they need to call someone and let them know. Call local law enforcement and they’ll call the bomb squad, and we’ll come take a look at it and make sure everyone is safe,” said Hilton.

The evidence has been handed over to the Terre Haute Police Department.

The criminal investigation is on-going.

Stay connected to News 10 and WTHITV.com for more information as it becomes available.

http://wthitv.com/2014/09/17/investigation-into-devices-found-at-collett...