10 Nov Bomb Squad Searches Millwood Lake for Possible Explosive in Guitar Case

Crews resumed a search Tuesday morning at Beards Bluff on Millwood Lake in Hempstead County, Arkansas, for a guitar case that, a man told deputies, might hold a bomb, per the Texarkana Gazette.

The Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office was sent to the scene around 3 p.m. Monday after a call about a potential explosive thrown into the water. A man from Jacksonville, Arkansas, told deputies he suspected a bomb could be inside the guitar case and that he had tossed it into the lake.

In the man’s vehicle, deputies saw several computer parts that had been taken apart, and at a campsite close by they found pliers and additional tools in a firepit ring. Information on the man’s identity and on any link to a device was not yet available.

Because of the possible danger, deputies enlisted the Hempstead County Office of Emergency Management and the Arkansas State Police Bomb Squad. The squad reached the scene around dusk and combed the shoreline and nearby ground, using a boat supplied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Wildlife enforcement officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission also helped.

Searchers stopped at about 10:30 p.m. Monday because of darkness and picked the work back up Tuesday morning.

Authorities asked the public to stay away from and not touch any object that looks suspicious, and to report anything unusual to law enforcement right away.