Harbor Springs thrift store manager: Pipe bomb incident likely didn't involve bad intent

HARBOR SPRINGS — Michigan State Police diffused a pipe bomb discovered at a Harbor Springs thrift store on Wednesday afternoon.

Carol Grissom, manager of the New Beginnings Thrift Shop, said an employee was sorting merchandise when she found an item that looked strange to her. After talking to another employee, they decided to call the police, believing they had found a pipe bomb.

The Michigan State Police responded to the call, and asked that the building be evacuated for safety. Afterwards, the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad arrived on scene, as did the Michigan State Police canine unit.

The police used an X-ray to determine one of the two pipe bombs did include a fuse and powder.

Grissom said the store receives many deliveries from a larger truck, so there's no way of knowing who may have donated the item. She said police indicated there was no reason to believe there was any ill intent.

Once items are donated, the boxes are sorted to departments before being looked through to go to the floor.

Grissom was not at the store when the pipe bomb was found, but returned to see that people had been evacuated.

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She said the staff is trained for an evacuation in case of a fire, but the store didn't have a plan for this type of incident as it was a first of its kind for them.

"They were very professional about it. They didn't waste time wondering if it was real or not," Grissom said of her employees, who called the police. "It was like, 'Let's be safe. Let's be secure, and we'll ask questions when the police get here.'"

While concerning to find, Grissom said there was likely no malicious intent, and what happened was someone was just clearing out an old garage, throwing stuff they wanted to get rid of into the box without looking too closely at it.

— Contact reporter Karly Graham at Follow her on Twitter at .