A 45-year-old man admitted to blowing up U.S. Postal Service mailbox in Arvada with pipe bomb "to impress his girlfriend," investigators say.
The blue USPS mailbox near Ralston Road and Independence Street was destroyed early Thursday, April 21.
Arvada Police said they got calls from four different people in a 10-block radius who said they heard an explosion around 2:30 a.m.
Officers went out to investigate but didn't find the mailbox until about 7 a.m.
(PHOTO: Officers had dozens of evidence markers surrounding the mailbox at 10 a.m. Thursday)
John Henry Bowman was arrested on Friday, April 22, according to John Walsh, United States Attorney, District of Colorado.
Investigators say an Arvada Police officer saw a car in the parking lot near the mailbox a few minutes after it exploded. The driver "appeared to speed off" when the officer approached, so he followed it for a few minutes and ran the license plate. The car was registered to Bowman.
Police contacted Bowman at his house at about 11 a.m. on Friday.
Initially, Bowman said he drove by the mailbox with his girlfriend, Tasia Losli, around 2 or 3 a.m., but said it was already destroyed.
Losli, 20, told investigators the same thing.
Investigators later reviewed surveillance footage from a security camera at the Chuck E. Cheese at 9301 Ralston Road and saw a man and a woman walking away from the area of the explosion at about 2:20 a.m. The man and woman looked similar to Bowman and Losli.
A warrant was issued to search Bowman's home.
Police took Bowman down to the station and he agreed to speak with police, investigators said.
That's when Bowman admitted to making a pipe bomb.
Bowman stated that he wanted to impress his girlfriend because she wanted to hear a "loud boom."
According to investigators, Bowman admitted he "blew up a mailbox" and that it was "stupid."
Losli later also admitted that she was with Bowman when he took something out of his bag, lit it on fire and put it in the mailbox. Losli was not arrested.
Bowman was taken into custody and has a detention hearing scheduled for later in the week.
The charge he is being held on involved maliciously destroying a property used in interstate or foreign commerce. If convicted, he faces five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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