Police Chief Hurt While Bombing Fish

A police chief who said he made a bomb to stun fish so he could scoop them up when they floated to the surface instead lost part of his hand when the device went off prematurely.

Phil Cram, police chief in the northern Maine town of Medway, was fishing from a boat on Junior Lake when the explosion occurred.

Cram, 42, told authorities the bomb consisted of a toilet-paper tube filled with black powder and taped together with a fuse attached, said state game warden Dave Georgia Jr.

As Cram tried to put it in the water Wednesday, it exploded in his right hand.

Fishing with explosives is illegal in Maine.