BRENHAM POLICE DEFUSE SMALL EXPLOSIVE PRIMER AT VACANT HOUSE

  

Brenham police were called out Wednesday afternoon, to the site of a live explosive primer at an abandoned house.

Captain Lloyd Powell reports that around 4 p.m., police received reports of someone performing excavation work at an abandoned house. The house was located between the car wash and Lowe’s next to Highway 36 South.

According to Cpt. Powell, the property owners said the person performing the work might have been a trespasser, as they had not given anyone consent to be on the property.

When police arrived and inspected the site, no suspects were located, but they did discover an undetonated primer, roughly the size of an ink pen, at the scene. The primer was found in a hole in concrete.

A bomb squad was called out to detonate the primer in place.  Cpt. Powell says crews were onsite for about an hour and a half, to safely detonate the primer.

Cpt. Powell says crews had to return to the property on Thursday to perform a second controlled detonation, as there were still surviving pieces of the primer that did not detonate in the initial explosion.  He says this was done as a precautionary measure.

No one was injured, and police do not believe there was anything stolen from the property. Cpt. Powell says he does not believe the person who left the primer was attempting to put the public in danger, given the size of the primer and its location.

Police are currently attempting to determine if there was criminal intent.