Saturday, August 7, 1999; Page B02
The tip came in: 31 mysterious blue plastic barrels, a gas-siphoning pump, a wrench used to open and seal large drums, and six red plastic containers normally used to store gasoline had been spotted being delivered to a single-family brick house in Upper Northwest.
Fearing someone was amassing explosive materials, federal agents filed an affidavit and got a judge to sign a search warrant. And at dawn yesterday, the agents, assisted by D.C. police explosives experts and an emergency response team, descended on the 3000 block of Birch Street NW.
But instead of bombs, they found the family had stockpiled empty barrels--in preparation for Y2K.
"You just never know these days," said Special Agent Jeffrey Roehm, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which led the raid.
© 1999, The Washington Post.
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