STATEN ISLAND -- Police sources say they have a "person of interest" in custody in connection with a string of fake bombs planted across the Island this month -- a jealous ex-lover hoping to get the police to arrest his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Cops are concerned because if the devices were rigged properly, they could have exploded.
– A 54-year-old man is accused of planting three inert bombs around Staten Island in order to frame the husband of a neighborhood woman he liked, reports the Staten Island Advance. Police say the man left his homemade devices in residential areas over the last month, reports the Daily News, which describes them as "propane cylinders duct taped to vials filled with gasoline attached to a container of nails and screws." As constructed, they apparently wouldn't have been able to explode, say police, though it's not clear whether that was by design or ignorance. The man was reportedly smitten with a 32-year-old woman in his neighborhood—the Advance says he was her ex-boyfriend—and apparently none too happy that she recently got married. With each device was an angry note that implicated her husband, says the Daily News. The suspect was being questioned this afternoon, and charges are pending. "He, we believe, is the person responsible for the three incidents on Staten Island,” says an NYPD spokesperson.