Misspelled Word Drives Man to Terror Attempt
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Photodisc/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(SALEM, Ore.) — A man accused of trying to blow up a sign at the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission office told employees that he acted because a word on the building’s sign was misspelled.
The sign, which is missing the letter “D” in the word “and,” reads “Teacher Standards an Practices Commission,” according to the Statesman Journal. The man, 50-year-old Leonard Burdek, told multiple employees that the sign prompted his attempted bombing.
Burdek walked into the building and placed a pressure cooker with wires sticking out of it onto the counter in front of a receptionist, says the Statesman Journal. After the receptionist asked him to leave, she began to dial 911, prompting Burdek to take the pressure cooker and go.
After he left, the staff immediately locked the doors of the building.
According to the Statesman Journal, shortly after the initial incident, employees spotted Burdek in a van nearby and informed police. Burdek was taken into custody at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
Burdek apparently complained that the instructions he had found online to build the device were rife with misspelled words as well.
While the device did not turn out to be a bomb, Burdek was charged with disorderly conduct.
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