January 31, 2008
West End Man Charged with Making Bomb
A part time employee at the Patterson Avenue Pleasants Hardware, William R. Hedgepeth, 20, was charged yesterday with manufacturing and possesing a fire bomb, in association with a series of mailbox explosions at the end of December.
Henrico County fire investigators aided by police and federal agents searched a western Henrico home yesterday for bomb components and explosives, arresting a 20-year-old man on multiple felony counts.
More than two dozen law-enforcement officers scoured the home in the 9300 block of South Mooreland Road in the heart of the Dorset Woods South subdivision.
There was not a series of mailbox explosions. One mailbox exploded. As a nearby neighbor, I never heard any explosions, and I am not certain there were other explosions. Half of the items found in Hedgepeth’s house were normal household items like aluminum foil, matches, and drill bits. My questions are these: 1.) how did the investigators choose which people to interview before issuing the search warrant, as every teen in the neighborhood was not interviewed? 2) if they can’t place Hedgepeth at the mailbox, does he still get charged for the things found in the house, when his house was searched to prove a mailbox bomb case, not just to go looking in his house for anything to charge him?
Yes, there was a series of explosions.
Police tied him to the crime based on evidence sited below. Here is a portion of the Times-Dispatch article, that I linked to. Click on [via] above to read it in its entirety.
“An investigation into numerous explosions in the area began Dec. 28, according to a search warrant, when a private mailbox on nearby Welwyn Place exploded. Remnants of a bomb made from PVC pipe and a fuse used to detonate the bomb were found.
A more recent explosion was reported Jan. 7 and others occurred in the late morning after most residents of the area had left for work.
Search warrants say that workers at Pleasants Hardware cooperated in investigations; agents turned up receipts there for the Dec. 28 purchase of PVC pipes and end caps. Employees recalled Hedgepeth being in the store that day with friends.”
Reread the article, these are not all mailbox explosions. There was one mailbox explosion. Further, as a homeowner in the neighborhood, I was alerted about the mailbox explosion on December 28, and not alerted of anything else, until a notice about the police the other day. These other explosions were not mailboxes, and I never heard the explosions that supposedly occurred in the article. I hear low flying planes, I hear the trains go by, I hear firecrackers on New Year’s and the 4th of July, and I hear cars drive by too fast late at night during holidays and weekends. Additionally, blowing things up is frankly part of American culture. I think whoever blew up the mailbox just chose the wrong mailbox to blow up. My grandmother who lived in rural VA, got her mailbox blown up every Halloween. It was like a tradition. I consider blowing things up a Southern young male prank. Now, there is a young man sitting in jail who probably will now have his life ruined because he chose the wrong mailbox. If it had been the mailbox of my grandmother or me, we would have gotten over it. We would not have been responsible for launching a series of events that may destroy a young man’s life.
A young Southern prankster or not, Virginia is part of America and it is still a Felony to blow up a U.S. Mailbox. What if your family or friend was delivering to that box and the “prankster” had gotten good enough through juvinile trial and error had a time delay detonnator? I hope you would br more upset than having your junk mail destroyed!
The bomb went off at 3:00 AM and nobody was hurt is the point to me. When my mailbox was mowed down in the middle of the night the fast driving person did not knock on my door and offer to replace the mailbox, nor did I notify the police that vandalism and trespassing had occurred. I wonder if it was a felony if the mailbox is hurt but not blown up. Now if my child had been playing next to the mailbox and had been injured or killed, that would have been a different matter. The point is nobody was hurt. I did not know until t he other day that hand delivering mail with no stamp to a mailbox was illegal. I mean all this mailbox is an extension of the federal government stuff is extreme to me.
Hedgepeth was also charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun. I would call that extreme. And it makes me nervous in the neighborhood.
The sawed off shot gun was broken and old, a relic really. The marijuana was residue like tar from a cigarette. If the police are going to release news to the media, why can’t the news be complete. To me, there is a big difference between an “old and busted” sawed off shot gun and one that works. How do we know if the old sawed off shot gun was a gun owned by Hedgepeth’s father who died 12 years ago, when Hedgepeth was eight? I don’t use guns but if I had inherited my father’s guns, I don’t think I would have thrown them away.
Brenda, what has happened to this poor boy?
I have heard nothing further other than family chose to keep him in jail until the next proceeding, the family can’t sleep, and I don’t think the press has written anything futher. I guess reporters just enjoy wallowing in bad and sad news, but don’t want to humanize anything. There are reportedly coyotes now in the sleepy Dorset Woods subdivision where the bomb exploded in the mailbox. Maybe one of our neighborhood dogs or human neighbors will be bitten and contract rabies. That might get the reporters salivating and out in full force again.
Here’s a link to the update:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-03-05-0112.html
He’ll go to trial on 7-25-08.
Just no justice in USA anymore. Big Brother is watching or your nosey neighbor. I just hope Hedgepeth’s childess neighbor who is so busy walking her schnauzer around the neighborhood and spouting heresay to the fire marshall when he questioned her so he could havee enough ammo to file search warrant, can sleep at night when that boy is in jail or prison. Enjoy the taste of justice.