Kettering police on exploding devices: ‘Whoever it is, they need to stop’

Police aren't speculating about who might be responsible for the explosion that rattled a Kettering neighborhood Friday night.

"Whoever it is, they need to stop," Lt. Craig Moore said. "We're not any happier about it than [neighbors] are."

Lt. Moore said police were dispatched to Glenheath Drive, at Hamphill Road, shortly after 10 p.m., following numerous calls to police dispatch about what sounded like an explosion.

He said police "found what appears to be a detonated device of some sort, that was in the middle of the road here, at Glenheath, with a fairly large debris field."

He echoed what neighborhood resident Nicole Abling reported to WHIO-TV, that police had a report of an explosion in the same area last week.

"However," Lt. Moore said. "we didn't find anything at that time."

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Abling is one of the many concerned residents living near the site of the explosion who hope police will figure out what's going on.

"So, the rumor is, police told us that someone was making fireworks," Abling, who lives in the 2400 block of Glenheath Drive, told our WHIO-TV videographer. "None of us is making fireworks. We're surrounded by families, kids, old people.... We're not making fireworks."

The noise generated by Friday night’s explosion brought residents out of their homes.

Monday, the Dayton Bomb Squad was called to Glenheath Drive, that time near Bending Willow Drive, on the report of an explosion.

The squad's robot was used to remove what was left of an item that apparently was detonated. Officials with the bomb squad have not released any details about that incident.

Both Abling and Lt. Moore made reference to a report of an explosion in the same neighborhood last week. What’s not immediately clear is whether they were referring to the Monday bomb squad call out or yet a third incident.

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"We're concerned about what's going on," Abling said. "Middle of the suburbs. Yeah, very scary. It's the middle of the night."

She described Friday night's explosion as "large" and compared it to the earlier incident.

"It [the earlier explosion] set off everyone's alarm," she said. "This one [tonight]... rattled the doors, rattled the windows" but did not set off residential burglar alarms, she said.

"There's shrapnel everywhere," Abling said. "I really hope the police figure out what's going on and let us know, because the rumor of fireworks is clearly not true."

No injuries have been reported from either explosion.

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