Alert Bar Worker Foils Plan to Bomb Mosque

Suspect arrested with explosives in trunk
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 30, 2011 4:12 PM CST
Alert Bar Worker Foils Plan to Bomb Mosque
A California man has been arrested on terrorism charges and accused of plotting to blow up a mosque.   (Shutter Stock)

Detroit police say they arrested a 63-old-man from California who drove across the country with plans to blow up a mosque. They arrested Roger Stockham outside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn with a load of explosives in the trunk of his car—all because he'd blabbed about his plans while drinking at a Detroit bar earlier in the week, reports the Detroit News. A worried employee followed him outside, got his license plate, and passed it on to authorities, who kept watch on local mosques.

Stockham's "had a long history of being angry at the United States," the local police chief tells the Detroit Free Press. "He picked Dearborn as a stop because of the huge Arab and Muslim population." Instead of a sophisticated bomb, he had allegedly packed his trunk with what both papers describe as "high-end fireworks," mostly M-80s. He's been charged with one count of making a false report or threat of terrorism and one count of possessing explosives with an unlawful intent. (More Islamic Center of America stories.)

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