Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Man says pipe bombs used for celebrations, tree stumps
Discovery of 26 devices led to evacuations from Boynton Beach apartment complex
BOYNTON BEACH – Gregory Samuel Haasze knew police were there for him.
Officers surrounded his Boynton Beach apartment — the one with the “U.S. Marines” flag hanging in front of it — and Haasze did not put up a fight, according to a police report. Instead he calmly stepped out his front door and told them the pipe bombs they found belonged to him.
Haasze’s admission brought to an end the events that began Wednesday night with reports of a loud noise. It led to the evacuation of apartment complexes and shopping centers along Congress Avenue and Old Boynton Road in Boynton Beach.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad disabled more than two dozen explosives on Wednesday night in a grassy area and dumpster off Hoadley Road, near Congress Avenue. Some of the PVC pipe bombs contained screws, nails and pellets, according to police. Haasze told police he bought the explosive materials on eBay using his phone.
The next morning, Boynton Beach Police were joined by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the bombs and Haasze, whose legal record has consisted of minor drug arrests, failing to pay a bar tab and driving with a revoked license, according to state records.
By Thursday afternoon, the federal agency had taken over the investigation.
Haasze, 34, is no stranger to his neighbors, who described him as a military veteran who worked as a
security guard until health issues forced him to leave his job. Although the large, red Marine Corps flag hangs outside the front door to Haasze’s apartment, a spokeswoman for the Marines said there is no record of his service in that branch.
“Nobody felt threatened” by the explosives, said neighbor Dessie Hill. “People set off fireworks all the time around here.”
He described Haasze as good, decent and friendly. “I’ve actually had to take him to the hospital before for heart problems. We’re neighborly. We help each other out.”
Haasze said he built and used the devices to remove tree stumps, according to a police report. Haasze told investigators he’s been making the devices for years, detonating them for different reasons such as celebrating Independence
Day.
Haasze, 34, was arrested on 26 counts of making, possessing, throwing, projecting, placing or discharging a destructive device. He is being held on $5,000 bond on each count, for a total of $130,000.
When officers first arrived Wednesday night, they found the remains of a PVC pipe bomb and shut down Old Boynton Road from Congress Avenue to
Renaissance Commons Boulevard, the Oakwood Square Shopping Center and the south end of the Town Center Shopping Center near Target and Best Buy, police said.
The bomb squad found six more PVC pipe bombs placed around the area.
Police and bomb technicians also found a cardboard box addressed to Haasze placed on top of a dumpster outside the apartment building where he lived. The box contained more pipe bombs, explosive materials and bottles of pills prescribed to Haasze.
A resident told the police that a man named “Greg” lived in an apartment in the 1200 block of Old Boynton Road and he was known to make explosives and detonate them.
Haasze claimed to have detonated three bombs since Sunday, according to police. He said he put everything in the dumpster when he saw all the police activity in the neighborhood and he knew he was in trouble.
Police evacuated Poinciana West Apartments, the homes along Hoadley Road and the Oakwood Square Shopping Center “out of an abundance of caution,” said Boynton police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater.
Haasze was ordered to stay jailed on a $130,000 bond, records show. Attempts to reach Haasze’s friends and family were unsuccessful Thursday.