A gadget resembling an improvised bomb was found among a man's tools at Sebring Regional Airport Industrial Park in Florida, according to investigators.
Closer inspection revealed it was a "partially completed pipe bomb," the Highlands County Sheriff's Office said in a Thursday, Nov. 14 news release.
It was discovered around 2 p.m. on Nov. 13 by employees of E Stone USA in Sebring, a company near the airport that manufactures home improvement materials. Sebring is about an 85-mile drive south from Orlando.
"The device is a metal pipe with a closed bottom and a threaded top that was closed with a removable nut and had other characteristics that would ensure its effectiveness if it was used as an explosive weapon," the sheriff's office said.
"A bomb technician from the Division of the State Fire Marshal examined the device and said that, even though the device did not contain any explosives, it had the characteristics of a fabricated improvised explosive device."
It was discovered in a tool cabinet assigned to a 37-year-old employee who was not on duty at the time, the sheriff's office said. He was scheduled to work at 3 p.m. on Nov. 13 and "was detained when he showed up for his shift."
Investigators suspect company equipment was used to build the device, officials said.
"Fellow employees said the device was nothing that could be associated with his job, and that (the worker) was not authorized to use the welder he had used to construct the device," the sheriff's office said.
The employee, who lives in Sebring, was arrested and charged with "manufacturing or possessing a hoax bomb," a second-degree felony, officials said.