Collar Fuels Tips In Rob/Bomb Case

The FBI says it is making progress in the case of a pizza deliveryman who said he was forced to rob a bank and died shortly afterward when a bomb attached to his body exploded.

The progress resulted from the release of photos of a triple-banded metal collar found around the neck of Brian Douglas Wells and the lock that kept it in place. The bomb hung from the lock over Wells' chest, authorities said, and they hoped someone would recognize the collar and lock and contact them.

"We received a number of tips, and positive tips that, in fact, we have acted on and conducted a search based on one of those calls," FBI Special Agent Ken McCabe told CBS News The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

"As reported on CBS Radio last night, we received a phone call from an individual who said he had seen that type of collar or equipment used around a radio tower," he added.

"The collar was specially made for this purpose," he said. "It has no other purpose as far as we know at this time."

About an hour before he turned up at the PNC Bank branch, Wells had gone to make a delivery to a rural spot along a main road, where a gravel road leads to a television transmission tower.

FBI experts in Quantico, Va., are reconstructing the bomb and analyzing an extensive, multi-page note that was used by the robber, said FBI Agent Bob Rudge. One part of the note was for bank employees, demanding cash, and the other part contained instructions for the robber.

Wells, 46, had gone to deliver a pizza Thursday to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at a PNC Bank branch outside Erie with the bomb attached to him.

When police stopped Wells a short time later, he told them about the bomb

"I don't have a lot of time," he said. "Why is nobody trying to come get this thing off me?"

Wells said someone — he apparently did give a name — had started a timer on the bomb and forced him to rob the bank.

"He pulled a key and started a timer," Wells said. "I heard the thing ticking when he did. It's going to go off."

The bomb exploded while authorities waited for a bomb squad to arrive.

A former FBI agent told CBS News this kind of device is one more commonly associated with drug runners or terrorists than bank robbers.

McCabe said one theory now is that Wells was either forced to do this or he was a co-conspirator.

"We have moved away further from the theory that he was doing this by himself towards that there were other individuals involved and we're still trying to determine if those individuals coerced him to do it or was he is he a willing co-conspirator," he said.

Neighbors describe Wells as someone incapable of dreaming up a scheme like this, reports CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers. A search of his house turned up no bomb making equipment.

Meanwhile, officials released information from an autopsy on one of Wells' co-workers, Robert Pinetti, 43, who was found dead Sunday at his home in nearby Lawrence Park Township.

Pinetti had a history of substance abuse and preliminary testing appeared to show methadone and "valium-type" drugs in his system, authorities said. There was no trauma, and officials said they did not know if his death is connected with Wells' case.

McCabe said so far, there is "no link" between the two deaths.