Portland, Oregon (KPTV) – A tense scene erupted in the Lenz neighborhood late Saturday night as the Portland Police Department attempted to remove an explosive that may have been thrown into a food cart on Southeast 82nd Street. .
Tim Turcotte owns Esan Thai Eastport, an Eastport Food Cart Pod. He walked outside his home late Saturday night and saw a group of suspicious persons near his cart, Turcotte said one of them set fire to the device and threw it at his business, I also saw him run away with more objects that he said were pipe bombs.
As the group fled the area, Turcotte approached to see what was thrown.
“It was probably a three-inch metal tube, maybe four inches long, stuffed with clay on the sides,” says Turcotte. “They wrote ‘five points zero’ all over the device.”
Realizing it could be an explosive device, Turcotte called 911. The PPB arrived and began investigating the object placed on the ground.
“The officer who came in said, ‘We need to put everyone back together,'” Turcotte said. “They taped off all of his 82nd Streets.”
Cellphone video shows police officers carefully removing the device from a food cart pod. An officer at the scene told Turcotte that it was in fact a pipe bomb, but PPB has not confirmed it on FOX 12 at this time.
“It just blew my mind, no pun intended,” Turcotte said. “It was kind of crazy.”
Many of the food carts had propane tanks attached to them, so any possible explosion could have been devastating.
“They have been blowing up homeless carts and RVs in the area,” he said. “Not to mention what food carts attached to 100-gallon propane tanks can do, they create a dangerous situation.”
Turcotte says he never moves his food cart and loves being part of the Eastport Food Cart Pod. He said the customers are great and his neighborhood looks out for each other.
He said crimes start happening when the sun goes down. To prevent crime across Portland, Turcotte said communities must have each other’s backs.
“If we were neighbors, everything would go smoothly,” he said. “You have to watch out for people who don’t live in your neighborhood.”
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