A suspicious object resembling a pipe bomb was found in a mailbox in front of a small East Texas post office, the second such incident in three days.
The pipe bomb found in Troup, about 100 miles east of Dallas, appears similar to an object found Tuesday in a collection box in front of a post office Laird Hill community, 20 miles to the northeast.
Spokesman Tom Crowley of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the Laird Hill object was explosive before bomb-disposal experts rendered it safe.
Troup Police Chief Pat Hendrix said a postal employee found the latest object at about 1 p.m. Thursday in the collection box in front of the building.
Postal inspectors and ATF agents sealed off the street in front and summoned a bomb-disposal team.
Crowley and U.S. Postal Inspector Amanda McMurrey declined to estimate the number of apparent incendiary devices found in mail collection boxes around east Texas in the past month, but reports from various law enforcement agencies put the number at at least 11.
Before the two apparent pipe bombs, authorities had reported finding bottles filled with flammable liquid and topped with wicks.
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The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the ATF have said $5,000 would be offered for information leading to convictions after bottles were found in Henderson, Kilgore and Tyler, about 90 miles east of Dallas.
