John Douglas Allen, a 76-year-old man, faces up to 20 years in prison having pled guilty on Monday to placing pipe bombs at Verizon and AT&T retail stores in September of 2021 in Michigan. Allen said he placed bombs at the stores because he was mad about “immoral content,” according to WJBK-TV. Officials said the USPS boxes containing the bombs were examined by the FBI Explosive Unit, which concluded that the two devices were improvised explosive devices (IEDs), aka, pipe bombs.
Allen admitted to leaving the devices at the Cheboygan, MI Verizon store and the Sault Ste. Marie AT&T store on September 15, 2021. Authorities said both bombs contained shrapnel and a note demanding $5 million with “CMT” written on them. The letters demanded that “telecommunication containing immoral content must be stopped,” including porn and cursing, and were signed by the Coalition for Moral Telecommunication. The group was allegedly operating in 27 states, according to a photo of a letter provided by the FBI. However, Allen told investigators that he was actually working alone and there was no CMT group.
“The actions of this defendant could have resulted in significant bodily harm or death to citizens in the area,” said U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison. “Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement partners and prosecutors, we were able to find and remove these dangerous devices before the defendant could cause serious harm.”
Allen also pleaded guilty to placing threatening letters addressed to telecommunications providers at cell towers located in the Upper Peninsula, reported WJBK-TV. Allen will be sentenced November 9.
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