A man was arrested over the weekend due to his connection with the backpack containing a homemade explosive device, that was left outside of police headquarters in a Nederland shopping center on October 11.

Law enforcement took 64-year-old David Michael Ansberry into custody in Chicago on Saturday, just as he was getting off an airplane at Midway International Airport. Ansberry is described as being a "little person," standing at approximately three-feet tall. A relative told investigators that Ansberry had been living in California up until about a year ago and that he had plans to travel through the Rockies. Authorities believe that this is an isolated incident, although say that Ansberry has ties to a radical, counterculture group known as STP, or the STP Family. The FBI was able to track the suspect down by tracing his cellphone. Ansberry made his first appearance in a Chicago court yesterday, and will be brought back to Colorado to face the charge he receives. If he ends up being convicted, the California native, who has been charged with attempted destruction of a building or property by means of fire or explosive, could face between 5 to 20 years in federal prison, along with a fine up to $250,000.

Nederland Police Marshal Paul Carrill found the backpack as he was going into work, and originally just thought someone had accidentally left it behind. Upon looking inside, he realized it had been intentionally placed outside of the police station, and the bomb squad was then called on scene to investigate and an evacuation order was placed on the shopping center. Investigators determined it was an active explosive that failed to detonate, and that Ansberry had been trying to set it off multiple times using his cellphone. Surveillance footage shows Ansberry purchasing two different phones that were connected to the explosive device at King Soopers stores in Denver and Longmont. Robots eventually detonated the device safely in the parking lot of the Caribou Ridge Shopping Center, and although no one was hurt, the community of Nederland remains a bit shaken up regarding the whole incident.

 

More From K99