Explosives scare traced to Afton man
Published: November 10, 2009
State authorities found black powder, grenades, guns and mortar rounds in an Afton man’s home after a scare on Delphine Avenue in Waynesboro, according to court records.
Authorities armed with search warrants rifled through two properties belonging to Mark S. Bales, 51, after the Waynesboro Police Department connected a suspicious drug package with a metal pipe sticking out of the side to him, according to a search warrant in Augusta County Circuit Court. Police closed the street Nov. 2 after finding the package.
Virginia state police Special Agent Robert W. Henderson obtained a search warrant for 25 Old Stony Ridge Road in Afton a short time later. Authorities last week found dozens of items, including grenades, guns, eight computers, jugs filled with black and aluminum powder, four mortar rounds and fireworks, according to the warrant.
Henderson also found six videotapes with footage of Bales instructing viewers how he uses the explosives, frequently inserting them into stuffed animals. In the videos Bales proceeds to blow the toys to smithereens, according to Henderson’s report in the warrant.
Investigators collected other stuffed animals at Bales’ Afton property.
Authorities also searched 1555 Mt. Torrey Road in Lyndhurst where they found pistol blanks, trip wire devices, rifle and shotgun barrels and different colored wires, the warrant shows.
Neither Henderson nor Bales’ defense attorney, Thomas Weidner of Waynesboro, could be reached for comment.
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Reader Reactions
To writer1…what part of “tell the whole story’ don’t you understand. I am just saying, if he did nothing illegal, but under the current fear climate even YOU can be arrested and charged for owning 8 computers, shotgun barrels, colored wire and inert mortar rounds because of a joke gone bad, then you better pay attention to what our police and government are doing. If I didn’t know him, or we lived in an urban environment, I could better understand the fear. But you are surrounded by honest, hard-working people here in the valley that could be as easily searched and charged because they too haven’t “grown up” to meet your standards of behavior. There is a much bigger issue here than Mark Bales himself. It’s about what could happen to you too.
If he is such a wonderful man, why is he frightening people with fake bombs? Sounds like this “fine upstanding citizen” needs to grow up and get himself another hobby.
What point he is trying to make and what purpose he is doing this need to be looked into thoroughly!
The world is scary with terrorists trying to blow us all to glory. We don’t need people playing games like these.
Mark Bales is one of the finest people I know. The way this story is presented, it implies so many dark and diabolical things have been uncovered, when in fact, I see nothing illegal of alarming about any of it, especially if you know the man. This is America, people! Still free. To imply Mark is dangerous opens the door to the same being said of so many of us. Since when is “eight computers” a crime? I think this reporter and the police need to tell the whole story, not slant it to fit the profile for a terrorist. A sad bit of reporting.
mark is a wonderful man who collects crazy stuff, the editorial makes him out to be scary,but he is funny and a christian man , i just hope the paper dosen’t make him look like a monster who collects guns, there are tons of men out there who collect the same things he does,and there not bad either…
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