Explosive device wrapped it in kielbasa found; 2 accused

By PAUL PFEIFER, pmpfeifer@naplesnews.com
April 27, 2004

Two San Carlos Park teens were arrested Monday on charges they constructed a homemade explosive and wrapped it in a Polish sausage.

A tipster led Lee County sheriff's deputies at 8 a.m. to a wooded lot near the intersection of Coral Gables and Bradenton roads in San Carlos Park. The device was found about 15 feet from a school bus stop.

Robert Scott Stinnett, 13, of 9091 Coral Gables Road, and Josh Logan Lewis, 15, of 18201 Fern Road, were charged with one count of making a destructive device, a third-degree felony. Stinnett, a student at Dunbar Middle School, was arrested at his home, and Lewis was arrested at Estero High School, where he is a student.

The boys were turned over to the state Department of Juvenile Justice, said Cpl. Larry King of the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

The device was constructed of two aerosol cans and a 20-ounce bottle of an unknown liquid deputies later discovered was homemade napalm, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi said.

LiMarzi said the teens wrapped the device in kielbasa sausage so they could call it a "wiener bomb." LiMarzi said the two didn't have any plans for the device and stashed it in the woods. No attempt was made to detonate the device.

"If it had gone off in the woods, it probably would have started a fire," LiMarzi said. "It wasn't anything deadly, but it would have caused some damage."

Authorities evacuated six surrounding homes, though most of the occupants had already left for work, and escorted several neighborhood youngsters from the nearby bus stop. The Southwest Florida Bomb Squad deemed the device safe at 11 a.m.

Stinnett was arrested earlier this month on a burglary charge, and was also charged with aggravated assault in connection with a February domestic disturbance.