When an artillery shell exploded at a Mississippi recycling yard, Chris Smith watched his co-worker bleed out. Later, a second shell was found. The sheriff’s department said they were the kind used in long-range cannons.
That’s what happened in 2018, when a former Marine’s father tipped off investigators about his son’s Colorado home. Authorities discovered four blocks of C4 stuffed into the son’s boots and, in his hoodie pocket, cord to detonate them. They also found eight 40 mm armor-piercing grenades, court records show.
That case spawned a parallel investigation into further explosive thefts from Kings Bay. According to the investigative file, 50 pounds of plastic explosives were stolen. In trained hands, much less C4 than that would be deadly if detonated close to people, and could destroy vehicles or damage bridges or buildings, military and civilian explosive experts said.Former military members who take explosives don’t always face punishment.
The Army didn’t know the explosives had been missing for years. At trial, an Army expert suggested a faked form said they had been exploded.The story of the recovery of Camp Lejeune’s purloined explosives begins with teenagers breaking into a vacant house. Sometimes, troops will gather the leftovers from a training and blow them up, rather than turning them back in — and filling out additional forms. It’s known as a junk shot, safety shot or clean-up shot.Krasovec, who declined an interview request from AP, would tell Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents that his idea was to go to his family home in Ohio — to have some fun, maybe blow up some tree stumps.
“I mean, you know how crazy the world is nowadays,” Glosser told an NCIS agent in June 2018, when he surrendered. “So it’s like well, you know, I’ve also got that just in case if the world does start coming to an end or anything crazy like that, I could protect me and my family.”
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