MILLINOCKET (AP) – Two teenage boys face felony charges for allegedly setting off an explosion at a church door during a Sunday service, the latest in a string of vandalism incidents and petty crimes that the pastor says has plagued the congregation for more than five years.

“We have had so much vandalism at the church we have stopped calling the police because they say there’s nothing they could do about it,” said the Rev. David LaLiberte of Your Family Worship Center. “It has been terrible here. Every Sunday we have to clear broken beer bottles that have been thrown at the church on Saturday night.”

No injuries or damage were reported from what police described as a highly unstable and potentially deadly homemade soda acid bomb that was set off while about 25 members of the Pentecostal church were attending a service inside.

Police found additional bombs and two teenage suspects a short time after being called to the church. Both were charged with criminal use of explosives, a felony.

Investigators said the suspects used common household chemicals to create a half-dozen bombs that could have caused blindness, serious burns or respiratory distress to the teens and anyone near the bombs when they exploded. “The issue is that the bombs create an acid that can cause serious burns, and they go off with a fair amount of force that can scatter the acid a good long way,” said Sgt. Tim York of the state fire marshal’s office.

Neither suspect apparently had an anti-religious motive, police Detective Ron McCarthy said. “They just happened to be there and thought that it would scare some people,” McCarthy said.

LaLiberte, however, wasn’t so sure. He said Sunday’s incident was the worst in a series of vandalism incidents and petty crimes, including broken windows, burglaries, vehicle vandalism, littering, and verbal threats and obscenity from drunken neighbors, against his 40-member congregation during his 5-year tenure.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

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