The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Wednesday afternoon released a list of explosives stolen from a San Mateo County storage facility in a theft discovered over the holiday weekend. The thief or thieves, who carted away about 200 pounds of goods in all, stole 800-900 commercial and military blasting caps from the facility near Crystal Springs Reservoir, according to ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee. Additionally, 1,700 feet of "det cord," used for detonating other explosives, was taken, as was 75 feet of "det sheet," which McKee described as a dough-like explosive material that can be molded into different shapes. Also missing are 114 pounds of binary explosives and 30-35 pounds of C-4 military explosives, McKee said. A number of agencies share use of the storage facility, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the San Francisco Police Department and the San Mateo County sheriff’s office, said bureau spokeswoman Marti McKee. All of the agencies are participating in the ATF investigation that was launched Tuesday morning to try and locate the stolen explosives, McKee said.
John Torres, special agent in charge of the ATF investigation, said that recovering the explosives is "absolutely a top priority" for the bureau. "ATF will employ all the resources available to us to track down these stolen explosives, return the explosives to safe storage, and find those responsible for the theft," Torres said.
THEY FOUND THEM: About 200 pounds of explosives and bomb-making hardware stolen from a storage locker used by two public safety agencies have been recovered from a stolen van, authorities said Thursday. The van was stopped near a shopping center in Union City Wednesday night, said McKee. "It was a stolen van with stolen plates and we had information that possibly it was connected to the theft," she said. "We think we've recovered all of the explosives." A man was detained by Hayward police but he was not arrested pending questioning by ATF agents, McKee said. |