Pinole police, acting on a tip from the FBI, have arrested the resident of a trailer on suspicion of possessing an explosive device in a residential area in the Pinole Valley.
The Walnut Creek bomb squad, assigned on mutual aid, "determined it in fact to be a destructive device that contained nails, bullet slugs, suspected gunpowder and birdshot, and the device was deemed inherently dangerous as found," according to a statement from Pinole police.
Police issued a statement Wednesday that they had arrested Philip Penn, 37, on Sunday after receiving information that a man living in a trailer on a driveway in the 2200 block of Simas Avenue had possibly made a comment about detonating a device.
Officers evacuated the area around the home at about 9 p.m. Sunday and contacted the trailer resident using a public address system. Penn complied with an order to come out of the trailer and police detained him.
The Walnut Creek Police Department and Pinole police searched the trailer and found the device. The Walnut Creek police bomb squad "rendered it safe," according to the Pinole police statement.
Penn was taken to the county jail in Martinez and booked on charges of possession of a destructive device or explosive.
