Four teenagers were taken into custody briefly Sunday after they allegedly used a homemade bomb to blow up a mailbox in unincorporated Lombard, authorities said.
The mailbox exploded about 2:30 p.m. in the 1S500 block of Westview Avenue. A caller alerted sheriff’s deputies to four teenagers near the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
A deputy saw four teens running through a field nearby and chased them. As he reached the top of a hill, another chemical reaction bomb the teens allegedly had dropped exploded near the deputy and the teens got away. The deputy was not injured, the sheriff’s office said.
Two of the boys, both 14, were taken into custody by Lombard police a short time later. Two other 14-year-old boys were taken into custody later, the sheriff’s office said.
After interviewing the teens, the deputies learned there were three more bombs left near a pond in Knolls Park. Members of the department’s Hazardous Device Unit defused them.
All four teens, whose names were not released, were turned over to their parents, the sheriff’s office said.
