Man sentenced to 30 months for hiding explosives in Girardville apartment
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - An FBI Bomb Technician assists the State Police Bomb Squad at an incident on West Main Street in Girardville on May 31, 2023.
GIRARDVILLE – A former Girardville man will spend 2 1/2 years in federal prison after authorities say he hid two improvised explosives in the ceiling of a Girardville apartment.
John Joseph Weikel, 50, of Quakertown, was sentenced last week to 30 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Julia K. Munley on a federal charge of possession of an unregistered firearm.
U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus said Weikel had two improvised explosive devices inside his home around June 28, 2021 and hid them behind ceiling tiles in his apartment. They were abandoned when he was evicted.
Federal authorities in both a media release and in court documents only identified his apartment location as Schuylkill County, but said the devices were discovered on May 31, 2023 — the same day two bombs were found in a Girardville apartment. West Main Street was closed for several hours and bomb technicians from the Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI were on scene.
Under federal law, it is illegal to manufacture or possess a destructive device without proper authority.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—Allentown Field Office and the Pennsylvania State Police.
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