Intersection Closed After Boy Finds Blasting Caps

Authorities briefly closed a Spokane Valley intersection Tuesday after a junior high school student found four blasting caps and took one home.

Malachi Winger, 14, was walking home from North Pines Junior High Tuesday afternoon when he noticed four silver objects about the size of a pen cap at the corner of Alki Avenue and Virginia Court.

Not knowing what they were, the eighth-grader picked one up and took it home.

Upon closer examination Winger noticed the word “explosive” printed on it and showed a neighbor and his mother, who called deputies.

Washington State Patrol troopers and a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy closed the intersection about 3:45 p.m. while they waited for a county bomb expert.

Sheriff’s deputy Gary Neubauer, who is a trained bomb expert, briefly inspected the blasting caps found at the corner before collecting them in a metal explosives container.

Authorities reopened the intersection about 4:05 p.m.

Neubauer gathered a fourth blasting cap in front of Winger’s nearby apartment complex and also determined it posed no threat.

All four had been fired within the last three months, probably to break up large rocks or stumps, Neubauer said. If the blasting caps had not been used they would have been dangerous, he added.

“A cap like that is capable of taking a boy’s hand off,” Neubauer said. “Those things are out there. Kids have to realize if it says ‘explosive’ on it, don’t touch it.”

, DataTimes