Tennessee man arrested for having 5 pipe bombs in his home

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) —  When officers made a routine probation visit to a Tennessee man, they found what they say were five pipe bombs and the materials to make more.

The probation officer and an accompanying Marion County Sheriff’s deputy paid Christopher Owens, who turned 32 that day, a visit at his Allen Lane home in Kimball at around 4:00 p.m. on Monday. When they searched his bedroom, they allegedly found the homemade bombs.

Owens, who was convicted of committing theft over $1,000, was home with his girlfriend and a child when the authorities performed the “home check,” Kimball Police Chief Timothy Allison told ABC News.

The police chief said that the devices, which were filled with black powder, were not that potent.

“I don’t think they were powerful enough to hurt anyone else, but they were a danger to the people in that home,” he said.

Owens was charged with eight counts of reckless endangerment because there were eight people living in the home, Allison said.

In addition to reckless endangerment, Owens was charged with felony possession of a firearm, kidnapping, domestic assault, possession of explosive components and drug possession, according to Allison.

It was not immediately clear if Owens has retained a lawyer or if a court date had been set.

Owens has lived at the one-story ranch-style house where the nearest neighbor is around 100 yards away for two decades, Allison said.

When the devices and materials to manufacture more were discovered, he continued, police assembled the Chattanooga bomb squad and “the five pipe bombs were detonated right there.”

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