By Ann McCreary
Twisp Police Chief Paul Budrow got a surprise on July 29 when he checked the glove compartment of a truck that was left overnight in a parking lot next to the Methow Valley Family Practice clinic.
When he opened the door to the glove compartment to look for the car’s registration, “a stick of dynamite fell into my hands,” Budrow said.
“So I put it down” and called for backup, he said. The truck was registered to Twin Lakes resident Marc Jefferson, 23, who was charged last week in Okanogan County District Court with possession of explosive devices.
Budrow said he was asked to come to the clinic around noon by the clinic staff, who noticed the truck had been parked in the clinic’s lot overnight. When clinic staff members looked inside the truck they saw a shotgun inside the car next to the passenger door, Budrow said.
Budrow said Jefferson came out of a nearby home while Budrow was investigating the truck, and told the police chief he had bought the dynamite “on the coast for the Fourth of July” but had not done anything with it.
Budrow arrested Jefferson on a charge of illegal possession of explosive devices and transported him to the Okanogan County jail.
A bomb squad from Spokane was dispatched to dispose of the dynamite, and arrived later that afternoon. Budrow said the team placed the dynamite in a container and took it to the rock quarry on Poorman Creek Road, near the intersection of Twisp River Road, and exploded it there. The area was cordoned off from traffic while the team disposed of the dynamite.
Illegal possession of explosive devices is a Class A felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
