Robber Explodes
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:26 pm
Dang! What a rough way to go!
Robber explodes
Mon Sep 1, 7:08 AM ET Add Local - New York Daily News to My Yahoo!
By MAKI BECKER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Handcuffed and desperate, a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man nabbed for robbing a bank pleaded with cops to help him moments before a live bomb strapped to his chest exploded, killing him.
"Why is it nobody's trying to come get this thing off me?" Brian Douglas Wells cried. "I don't have a lot of time!"
Two minutes and 46 seconds later, the bomb went off.
Authorities were trying to determine yesterday whether Wells, 46, staged Thursday's horror to cover up a crime - or whether there was truth to his claim that someone fitted him with explosives and ordered him to knock off a bank.
"It looks like a good old-fashioned bank robbery with a new twist on it," FBI (news - web sites) agent Kenneth McCabe told Fox News yesterday.
But people in Erie, tucked in Pennsylvania's northwest corner, said the balding bachelor, who lived alone with three cats, was too shy to carry out such a brazen crime.
"He was a very simple guy," said Linda Payne, 61, who rented a small cottage to Wells in nearby Millcreek Township.
"He's been no trouble at all. He just works on his car and plays with his cats and listens to his CDs," she told the Daily News.
Authorities described the bomb, which hung from Wells' neck, as very sophisticated.
McCabe said he has seen the highly unusual type of explosive only once before, in Bogota, Colombia.
"This is probably one of the most dangerous bombs to try to defuse," he said.
Investigators found a handwritten note in Wells' car containing detailed instructions on how to carry out the bank heist, McCabe said.
The list, along with pieces of the bomb, were taken to an FBI lab for analysis, McCabe said.
Order for pizza
The bizarre drama unfolded just before 2 p.m. Thursday, when someone called Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria and placed an order.
Wells, who had just finished his shift, agreed to deliver the food on his way home. But the directions were unclear, and the route took Wells to a remote spot at the end of a dirt road near a radio tower.
"It was a delivery to a work site," said Payne, whose husband works at the pizza shop. But there was "no work going on there."
About 20 minutes later, Wells walked into the local PNC Bank, a prominent bulge underneath his white T-shirt and an "extensive" note in his hand, the FBI said.
A teller handed him some cash and Wells drove away in his Geo Metro.
Cops pulled over the nervous man about a quarter-mile away. They cuffed his wrists - and backed away when he told them he was a human bomb.
In his frantic final moments, aired live on WJET-TV, Wells desperately begged for help.
"It's going to go off! I'm not lying. Did you call my boss?"
Training their guns on the increasingly hysterical man, cops waited for bomb squad experts to arrive.
They never made it.
"You could hear it like a big old firecracker," said Matt Snippert, who was at a nearby restaurant. "There was a cloud of smoke and debris."
Adding to the mystery, another worker at the pizzeria turned up dead yesterday morning.
Robert Pinetti, 43, called 911 from his parents' house, then refused medical help and was found dead a few hours later, WJET-TV reported.
Authorities were trying to determine whether the two deaths were related, but just in case, they sent a bomb squad to search Pinetti's house.
Wells' landlord criticized police for failing to help him.
"They should have tried a little harder," Payne said. "Even if they thought he tried to do it himself." Originally published on September 1, 2003
Robber explodes
Mon Sep 1, 7:08 AM ET Add Local - New York Daily News to My Yahoo!
By MAKI BECKER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Handcuffed and desperate, a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man nabbed for robbing a bank pleaded with cops to help him moments before a live bomb strapped to his chest exploded, killing him.
"Why is it nobody's trying to come get this thing off me?" Brian Douglas Wells cried. "I don't have a lot of time!"
Two minutes and 46 seconds later, the bomb went off.
Authorities were trying to determine yesterday whether Wells, 46, staged Thursday's horror to cover up a crime - or whether there was truth to his claim that someone fitted him with explosives and ordered him to knock off a bank.
"It looks like a good old-fashioned bank robbery with a new twist on it," FBI (news - web sites) agent Kenneth McCabe told Fox News yesterday.
But people in Erie, tucked in Pennsylvania's northwest corner, said the balding bachelor, who lived alone with three cats, was too shy to carry out such a brazen crime.
"He was a very simple guy," said Linda Payne, 61, who rented a small cottage to Wells in nearby Millcreek Township.
"He's been no trouble at all. He just works on his car and plays with his cats and listens to his CDs," she told the Daily News.
Authorities described the bomb, which hung from Wells' neck, as very sophisticated.
McCabe said he has seen the highly unusual type of explosive only once before, in Bogota, Colombia.
"This is probably one of the most dangerous bombs to try to defuse," he said.
Investigators found a handwritten note in Wells' car containing detailed instructions on how to carry out the bank heist, McCabe said.
The list, along with pieces of the bomb, were taken to an FBI lab for analysis, McCabe said.
Order for pizza
The bizarre drama unfolded just before 2 p.m. Thursday, when someone called Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria and placed an order.
Wells, who had just finished his shift, agreed to deliver the food on his way home. But the directions were unclear, and the route took Wells to a remote spot at the end of a dirt road near a radio tower.
"It was a delivery to a work site," said Payne, whose husband works at the pizza shop. But there was "no work going on there."
About 20 minutes later, Wells walked into the local PNC Bank, a prominent bulge underneath his white T-shirt and an "extensive" note in his hand, the FBI said.
A teller handed him some cash and Wells drove away in his Geo Metro.
Cops pulled over the nervous man about a quarter-mile away. They cuffed his wrists - and backed away when he told them he was a human bomb.
In his frantic final moments, aired live on WJET-TV, Wells desperately begged for help.
"It's going to go off! I'm not lying. Did you call my boss?"
Training their guns on the increasingly hysterical man, cops waited for bomb squad experts to arrive.
They never made it.
"You could hear it like a big old firecracker," said Matt Snippert, who was at a nearby restaurant. "There was a cloud of smoke and debris."
Adding to the mystery, another worker at the pizzeria turned up dead yesterday morning.
Robert Pinetti, 43, called 911 from his parents' house, then refused medical help and was found dead a few hours later, WJET-TV reported.
Authorities were trying to determine whether the two deaths were related, but just in case, they sent a bomb squad to search Pinetti's house.
Wells' landlord criticized police for failing to help him.
"They should have tried a little harder," Payne said. "Even if they thought he tried to do it himself." Originally published on September 1, 2003
