Man arrested for placing homemade bomb inside vehicle

A Bloomfield resident was arrested Saturday after allegedly severing the break lines of an ex-girlfriend’s truck, planting a homemade bomb device beneath the hood of the truck and leaving a threatening note on the windshield in February.

Hugh Garner Jr. was arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and charged with arson, a Class B felony; intimidation, a Class C felony; and criminal recklessness, a Class A misdemeanor.

On Feb. 1, a woman called police after suspecting her truck had been tampered with. The woman found a threatening note on the truck windshield. She noticed the truck sounded like it was running roughly after starting it. Later, while attempting to break while driving, her breaks did not function. She was able to stop the car and called police. No one was hurt.  

When firefighters and police popped the truck’s hood, they found a Pepsi bottle filled with what was later confirmed to be gasoline. The Pepsi bottle was wedged near the exhaust manifold with one end of a spark plug shoved into the bottle.

A Bloomington Police Department detective investigated the case. However, police were unsuccessful in obtaining DNA evidence from the Pepsi bottle.

The ex-girlfriend implicated Garner in police interviews. Garner originally stated in police interviews that he was not in Bloomington when the incident occurred. The break in the case came when police obtained a search warrant for Garner’s cell phone and discovered he was in the area of the truck at the time of the crime, BPD Sgt. Lucas Tate said.

— Colleen Sikorski