Dead rats, explosives and a python: 2 men indicted in bizarre plot

Two men from South Georgia were indicted Wednesday after allegedly using an explosive to blow up a home in 2023 and conspiring to put a snake in the house to injure the victim’s daughter, court documents show.

Stephen Glosser, 37, and Caleb Kinsey, 34, both of Bryan County, were indicted on federal charges of stalking, use of an explosive to commit a felony, conspiracy to use an explosive to commit a felony and possession of an unregistered destructive device, said Barry Paschal, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia. Kinsey is also charged with giving false statements during the purchase of a firearm and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

On Jan. 13, 2023, the Bryan sheriff’s office said they responded to a home in Richmond Hill after an explosion took place around 5 a.m. An investigation by the sheriff’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the GBI tied Kinsey and Glosser to the incident and they were arrested about a month later.

The explosion came after Glosser and Kinsey placed the victim under surveillance between December 2022 and January 2023, Paschal said. The two allegedly used cellphones to create a plan to “‘kill, intimidate, harass or injure the victim’” and conspired to do so by “shooting arrows into the victim’s front door, acquiring and releasing ‘a large python into the victim’s home to eat the victim’s daughter,’ mailing dog feces or dead rats to the victim’s home, scalping the victim and blowing up the victim’s home.”

Court documents do not say if any of those methods were used, apart from blowing up the house. The explosion primarily damaged the garage area and no one was injured.

“Thankfully the family was able to get out of the house with no injuries. Sadly, they had just moved into their house, but their belongings had yet to be moved in,” the sheriff’s office said.

According to officials, Glosser located the victim’s home through online searches and mapped out a path to the residence. He then acquired and built an explosive device with Kinsey at his home using Tannerite, a brand of explosive targets, that Kinsey purchased online, authorities said.

Glosser and Kinsey remain in custody. Future court dates had not yet been scheduled.