LITTLETON, Colo. — Law enforcement disabled a pipe bomb outside the Safeway at West Mineral Avenue and South Broadway on Tuesday afternoon, the Littleton Police Department said.
A man who was doing contract work at the store found the device and called police at 12:36 p.m., said Sheera Poelman, spokesperson for Littleton Police.
After arriving on scene, police "determined that it was a possible threat, so we secured the area where we knew the blast could probably be an issue," Poelman said.
She said there was a timer on the bomb and that it was broken, and that police don't know yet how long the bomb was there.
Police set up a perimeter but didn't evacuate or close the grocery store due to the structure of the building and the location of the device, which was around a corner from public entrances.
"It's never our goal to disrupt. We want to do our job and keep everybody as safe as possible, but we don't want to disrupt the community if we don't have to," Poelman said.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office bomb squad used a robot to determine that the device was an active bomb. A Sheriff's Office bomb expert defused the device. The Sheriff's Office initially said it would be taken to an off-site location and destroyed, but later said that since it was rendered safe, police collected it as evidence.
Investigators were working to determine who put the bomb there, when that happened and why. Possession, use or removal of explosives or incendiary devices is a Class 4 felony, police said.
Two police dogs, named Nuke and Rex, were brought into the scene after the bomb was defused to determine what kind of explosives were in the device.
Anyone with information on this incident can contact Littleton Police at PoliceTips@littletongov.org.
> Watch the full briefing from Littleton Police below:
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