CATASAUQUA BOR. LEHIGH CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Pennsylvania State Police have filed multiple felony and misdemeanor charges against two Lehigh County men accused of throwing an explosive device from a moving pickup truck earlier this month in Catasauqua Borough.<\/p>\n
Investigators charged 56-year-old Matthew Pletz and his 24-year-old son, Jack Pletz, both of Catasauqua, in connection with the May 19 explosion near Salem United Church of Christ in the 600 block of Third Street.<\/p>\n
According to investigators, Matthew Pletz was allegedly riding in the passenger seat of a green Chevrolet pickup truck while Jack Pletz was driving when the explosive device was thrown from the vehicle.<\/p>\n
State police said the device detonated roughly a half-block away from the church and around the corner from the entrance to the polling place.<\/p>\n
No injuries were reported, and authorities said the incident was not believed to be connected to voting activity at the church.<\/p>\n
Investigators later executed a search warrant on the pickup truck, where authorities said they discovered 17 homemade explosive devices along with additional materials consistent with improvised explosive devices.<\/p>\n
Both men are charged with unlawful possession or manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, risking catastrophe, carrying explosives on conveyances, making or repairing offensive weapons and possession of instruments of crime.<\/p>\n
The investigation began after troopers responded around 9:15 a.m. May 19 to reports of an explosive device thrown from a moving vehicle in Catasauqua Borough.<\/p>\n
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The Pennsylvania State Police Troop M Major Case Team is leading the investigation with assistance from the ATF, the Catasauqua Borough Police Department, the PSP Fire Marshal Unit, the Allentown Bomb Squad and the North Catasauqua Borough Police Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CATASAUQUA BOR. LEHIGH CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Pennsylvania State Police have filed multiple felony and misdemeanor charges against two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-202651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}