Tenants sought by cops after house for sale was wired to explode

TENANTS who fled this rental property after it was put up for sale are now police suspects after the landlord found the house had been deliberately wired up to explode.

A HOMEOWNER in Massachusetts was carrying out a pre-sale inspection of his property when it was discovered it had been wired to explode if a light was turned on

Police are now looking for the tenants of the house, who appear to have abandoned the house, and are treating them as suspects.

The house had been carefully wired to explode if someone had simply flipped a light switch and could have caused “significant destruction”, police said.

Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr told NBC Boston police bomb specialists worked in the house for several hours before declaring it disarmed and safe.

“It took some work to put it in there,” said Mr Wells, who described the mechanism as involving wires meticulously snaking through several rooms from a gallon container of an incendiary substance, which was “secreted inside the house,” to a particular light switch.

This is the Milton house at the heart of the "found device" investigation. pic.twitter.com/9GgrYYzKrJ

— Greg Wayland (@gregwnecn) March 24, 2015

“We believe the intention was that if someone had flipped the light switch on where it ended, the device would have exploded,” he said.

Milton police were called on a vandalism complaint last week to the house, which was being occupied by renters. When they arrived last week, officers found the house’s drains had been plugged with cement.

"Definitely criminal intent"...Milton authorities re "incendiary device" found wired into a house for sale on Craig St., Milton,MA

— Greg Wayland (@gregwnecn) March 24, 2015

Both the Boston and Milton police departments are seeking the renters, who appeared to have abandoned the house, as persons of interest in the investigation.

“I have never seen anything like this,” Mr Wells, who said there was no doubt the would-be bomber or bombers “definitely had malicious intent in what they did.”

Bomb squad technicians “took this very seriously,” he said.

“Clearly, by what we believe was the intent of the design of this device, it was definitely intended to do some significant destruction.”

Originally published as Tenants sought by cops after house for sale was wired to explode