Photo: Brevard County Sheriff's Office
A Florida man was taken into custody after authorities claim he blew up the mailbox over landscaping fees, WKMG reports.
Brevard County Sheriff's Office says 29-year-old Petr Duesk pulled up to a Merritt Island home on the evening of May 19 to collect payment for landscaping services from the previous homeowner. The current owner of the home told Duesk to come by on Friday (May 20), and the owner's mother reiterated to the suspect that her son wasn't home at the time, according to cops.
Witnesses told deputies they saw Duesk drive down the road, come back and place something inside the home's mailbox, which exploded minutes later, an arrest affidavit reads. Surveillance video from nearby homes also corroborated the witness testimonies, according to the sheriff's office.
"The explosion not only destroyed the mailbox — it bent a street sign next to the mailbox and threw shrapnel 50 feet from the detonation site," reporters learned from deputies. "One of the neighbors was outside and nearby when the explosion happened, and pieces of shrapnel landed feet from where they were standing."
Duesk, who was already on parole for a previous sentence, is facing charges of discharging a destructive device, possession to destruct a device to cause bodily harm, and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.