Man threatens to blow up government building over misspelt sign
A US man has been arrested after threatening to blow up a government building over a misspelt sign.
The Teacher Standards and Practices Commission office in Salem, Oregon
11:05AM BST 30 May 2013
Leonard Burdek, 50, of Salem, Oregon, walked in to the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission office on Wednesday carrying a pressure cooker with wires sticking out, and placed it on the counter in front of the receptionist.
He told her that he had tried to blow up the sign outside the building, but that his "bomb" had not worked - because, he said, the instructions he downloaded were also misspelt.
The sign spells out the agency's name in blue letters - but misses the letter "d" in the word "and", so it reads: "Teacher Standards an Practices Commission".
People come to the commission office to fill out applications for teacher's licences.
"He walked quite confidently into our office as though he had a mission, and I think that was what alarmed me right off the bat," Executive Director Vickie Chamberlain told the Statesman Journal.
Ms Chamberlain, who was in the office when Burdek walked in, said he implied the agency should be worried about the level of education that children receive given that his instructions were rife with errors.
She said she asked Burdek to leave, and he did - taking the pressure cooker, which police later said was not an explosive device - with him.
Burdek was arrested by police nearly an hour later and charged with disorderly conduct, the Journal reported.
Ms Chamberlain said she did not think about last month's Boston Marathon bombs - allegedly carried out with homemade bombs built using pressure cookers - telling reporters that she was focused on the hope that if Burdek was holding the device then perhaps it would not explode immediately.
"It's kind of like a car wreck where it's happening to you but you aren't processing it," she said. "I think it's one of the scariest things that we've had happen here."
