No suspects surface in Lowe's store bombings

Home Channel News, Oct 25, 1999 by Monica Toriello

Investigators can't link attacks to fatal raceway accident

WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Law enforcement officials conducted more than 400 interviews in the investigation of bombings at three North Carolina Lowe's stores late last month. They have yet to uncover evidence that those bombings were linked to a fatal accident at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in May.

In early October, an anonymous source told the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., that someone claiming to be "an aggrieved relative" of one of the accident's victims had called Lowe's headquarters here, complaining about the lack of support and aid given to the victims and their families. Lowe's is the corporate sponsor of the racetrack in Concord, N.C. Three spectators were killed and eight injured in an auto racing accident there May 1.

But Earl Woodham, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), said the investigation has in no way been confined to that connection. "It would be inaccurate and irresponsible to suggest that the investigation has been narrowed to that one angle at this point," Woodham told APB News.

The racetrack, however, did report a bomb threat from a male telephone caller on Sept. 29, the same day a bomb was found in the nearby Lowe's store in Concord. More threats were phoned in to Lowe's stores in Salisbury and Rockingham, N.C., on subsequent days. Police searches turned up nothing suspicious, Woodham said.

ATF officials said that lab analysis indicates the three bombs found in Asheboro, Salisbury and Concord were all "improvised explosive devices" planted by the same party. The bombs that exploded in the paint departments of Lowe's stores in Asheboro and Salisbury the evening of Sept. 22 injured three people, including a female customer who had to be airlifted to a Chapel Hill, N.C., hospital for second- and third-degree burns. Both stores were reported to be structurally sound and reopened a few days after the bombings, although the Asheboro unit had some minor fire damage.

A week later, employees at a store in Concord found a third bomb, minutes after Lowe's chairman and CEO Bob Tillman entered the store. The store was evacuated and shut for several hours while police disarmed the bomb. Asheboro, Salisbury and Concord are all within 50 miles of each other.

On Oct. 1 law enforcement officials offered a $30,000 reward for information about the bombings leading to arrests. Anyone with information should call (888) ATF-BOMB.

Two small fires that broke out in a Lowe's store in Lexington, N.C., a few days later did not appear to be linked to the bombings, said investigators. The first fire was set in a trash can outside the store before dawn on Oct. 3, and was quickly snuffed out by firefighters. A second fire broke out in the store's millwork department later that day and damaged a door before employees put it out with a fire extinguisher. No injuries resulted. Lowe's spokesman Brian Peace said that at about 9 p.m., the store received a "prank call" about the fire.

"There's been no evidence to indicate the fires were anything more than a prank," he said. Peace added that security has been tightened at all of the company's 538 stores, although he could not give specific details due to instructions from law enforcement officials. Investigators have not released any information about possible suspects.

Lowe's has 72 stores in North Carolina.