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MEGAN SCOTTThe 14-year-old was found with the device in a shopping center on U.S. 19 in Clearwater.
CLEARWATER - A 14-year-old boy was arrested Friday and accused of making a bomb using a flammable chemical in a container the size of an aspirin bottle.
The boy was taken into custody and was later charged with possession of a concealed weapon and possession of a firebomb. He was being held in the Juvenile Detention Center.
The boy was found with the device about 3:26 a.m. Friday in the Office Depot and PetSmart shopping center on U.S. 19 in Clearwater, police said.
He had called 911 from a pay phone in the shopping plaza and then hung up, said Sgt. Greg Stewart, spokesman for the Clearwater Police Department.
When officers responded to the 911 call, they found the boy walking around the center with something in his hand that resembled a small aspirin bottle, Stewart said.
"The officer took it from the boy, thinking he might be carrying something dangerous," Stewart said. "When he asked him what it was, the boy said it was a bomb."
The officer isolated the bottle and called in the Tampa Police Department's bomb squad. The squad determined that the device was not going to explode, and disarmed it.
A lab is working to determine what liquid was in the bottle. That report will probably take several weeks, Stewart said.
Stewart said the bomb was an incendiary, rather than an explosive device.
"We don't see that there was an effort to firebomb a building," he said. "It was more of a misguided use."
Megan Scott can be reached at 445-4167 or mscott@sptimes.com