Police searched a Wauconda home for explosives Thursday night after an employee of a nearby business reported a threat a man made allegedly saying he wanted to lure police to his home with the intention of setting off explosives and blowing them up, authorities said.
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Authorities assumed the threat was credible because the suspect gave a “pretty specific” description of the explosives he said he had, Wauconda police spokeswoman Heather Cognac said. The suspect was in custody early Friday morning with charges pending.
Police cleared a 1,400-foot perimeter around the 400 block of Lakeshore Blvd., Highland Avenue and Hill Street and closed Illinois Route 176 between Main Street and Fairfield Road as the Wauconda Police Department, the Waukegan Bomb Squad and the Illinois State Police SWAT team searched the home. ATF dogs also were brought in, Cognac said.
Authorities lifted the evacuation order just after midnight, allowing residents who left some three hours before to return home. Investigators continued to process the scene and will keep Lakeshore Blvd. closed to through-traffic between Illinois Route 176 and Hill Street. They will also keep Highland Ave. closed between Lakeshore Blvd. and Clearview Ave.
Following the threat, police encouraged evacuated residents to gather at Federation Church of Wauconda on Barrington Road.
Judy Reimer, who turns 89 next week, was in her pajamas and walking to her bedroom when her neighbors came to tell her about the evacuation, she said. Minutes later, she said, the police came to her house and she did not have time to change before heading to the church.
“I could see all the squad cars and everything and somebody shot off a couple of firecrackers and I thought it was guns,” Reimer said. “I knew there was something going on with all the police cars. I didn’t know what, though.”
Lenn Neubauer saw squad cars near his home before getting a call on his landline about the evacuation, he said. His home is about six blocks from the residence in question, and he called his parents, who live down the street but do not have a landline. The three followed police orders and went to the church.
“We weren’t that nervous, but it’s better safe than sorry,” Neubauer said.
Not everyone in the neighborhood got the information.
Brenda Logothetti lives a few blocks down from the house being searched, but said no one came to alert her and her husband who were in bed when the evacuation began.
Their neighbor, Dan Miroballi, heard a helicopter circling over the area and wondered what was happening. He said he searched Google for the phrase, “why is there a helicopter over Wauconda,” and saw news reports of the bomb search. He then went to tell Logothetti and her husband.
“I’m just hoping, I worry over the holiday weekend,” Logothetti said. “I don’t know what people will do.”
Angelica LaVito is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.