He wanted to get paid for landscaping services — then came the blast, Florida cops say
A man is facing multiple charges for blowing up a Florida homeowner’s mailbox over nonpayment, police say.
According to an arrest affidavit, deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office went a call about an explosion outside a home in Merritt Island on Thursday night. The homeowner told deputies that he was sitting on his bed when he heard a loud bang, then saw his mailbox completely destroyed, according to the police report.
The homeowner said he had just moved to this house only 48 hours earlier and was informed that the previous inhabitants had owed the landscaper money.
Investigators say they learned that hours before, a neighbor saw a local landscaper, later identified as Petr Dusek, show up at the house and put something in the mailbox. It blew up minutes later. Surveillance video from neighbors corroborated the witness accounts, police say.
The report says that an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal, often used in military operations) was set off, and that it was “not put together hastily.”
The force of the blast bent a nearby street sign and sent shrapnel flying roughly 50 feet. No one was injured.
The following day, Dusek, 29, of Cocoa Beach, was arrested on several charges, including making or possessing a destructive device, possession of a destructive device to cause bodily harm and aggravated assault.
He remains in Brevard County Jail on no bond.
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