Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening To Blow Up Liberty Bell
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia police say a 41-year-old man in custody after allegedly threatening to blow up the Liberty Bell Saturday morning.
Authorities say shortly before 11 a.m. Carlos J. Balsas, of Tempe, Arizona, claimed that he would destroy the icon and that he had explosives in his two backpacks. The Balsas was apprehended.
The backpacks were being held along Market Street near 7th Street when the bomb squad arrived. Market Street was shut down to vehicles and pedestrians between 7th and 8th Streets while an investigation was going on, but everything is now back to normal. The Liberty Bell Pavilion, located about a block away, never closed.
No explosives were found and there were no injuries.
Balsas has been charged with terroristic threats, bomb threats, possessing an instrument of crime, recklessly endangering another person and related offenses.
