Powder, packages frighten Oldsmar
Deputies are searching for a man suspected of spreading chaos with flour or baking soda and fake grenades Friday.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX and JAMIE THOMPSON
Published January 22, 2005
OLDSMAR - First a neighborhood was terrorized. Then the whole town.
It began with a letter in the homeowner association president's mailbox about 8:15 a.m.
"BOOM. Wait until Sunday. You haven't seen anything yet," said the letter, in an envelope filled with white powder.
Then came a series of alarming calls that sent authorities scrambling across Oldsmar all day: a suspicious package at a nearby car rental company, a possible explosive device in a room at the Holiday Inn Express, a reported hand grenade attached to a mailbox at an Oldsmar post office.
"It was total chaos," said Oldsmar Mayor Jerry Beverland.
Sheriff's deputies identified the man they think is responsible as David Vice, a 41-year-old married father of four. He is wanted on at least two felony charges, but deputies had not found him by late Friday.
"I want him out of circulation," Beverland said. "He's dangerous, not only to himself, but his family."
Residents say Vice has spread fear in their Oldsmar neighborhood, the Preserve at Cypress Lakes, for several years.
And Vice is no stranger to authorities.
On Sept. 11, 2004, he rammed his car into a gate at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, authorities said. He was charged with fleeing and eluding a police officer and later received probation, according to Hillsborough court records.
"I've been saying for months that something was wrong with him and everybody laughed at me," said homeowner association president Derrick Cain. "Now I guess they know to take him seriously."
Cain, 36, who lives a few doors down from Vice, was just starting his day Friday when his brother handed him a strange looking envelope he had found in Cain's mailbox.
"I opened it up, and white powder went everywhere," said Cain.
He thought it was a joke, then read the note.
"BOOM. Wait until Sunday. You haven't seen anything yet. Death to Israel," the note read.
Cain called the Sheriff's Office. Minutes later, a hazardous materials team arrived. Other neighbors said Friday they also discovered suspicious letters with powder. Cain was forced to leave his home for nearly for four hours while the hazmat team analyzed the envelope, Cain said.
About two hours later, authorities received a call about a suspicious package a few miles away. An envelope had been delivered to Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 3927 Tampa Road just before 10 a.m.
It also contained white powder.
Deputies had just begun to investigate that incident when they received another call, about a suspicious package about a mile away at the Holiday Inn Express, 3990 Tampa Road in Oldsmar.
This seemed more serious.
The motel's housekeeping staff found a computer and several suspicious items in a room, officials said. Authorities ordered guests and staff to evacuate the four-story building. The Hillsborough County bomb squad arrived moments later.
When authorities entered the motel room, the door brushed a computer mouse left on the floor, said a Pinellas sheriff's spokesman, Sgt. Tim Goodman. The mouse apparently activated a computer resting in the center of the room. When the monitor came on, it displayed a time clock, Goodman said.
Officers quickly examined the device, and determined it was not going to explode, Goodman said. They found some type of container next to the computer, but its contents had not been identified by late Friday, Goodman said. Officers also found three fake grenades in the room.
Dozens of motel guests and workers at the sprawling complex at the Oldsmar Town Center watched a chaotic scene unfold at the motel while they sipped drinks at the nearby Applebee's.
Shortly after, at 2:30 p.m. police received the next call. This time a hand grenade, later determined to be fake, had been found about a half-mile away at an Oldsmar post office, 135 Bayview Blvd.
By that point, authorities had the name of a suspect: Vice.
The homeowner's association president told authorities that Vice had been frightening the neighborhood for at least two years. He said Vice began acting strangely after Vice, his wife, Lisa, and the family's four sons moved to Utah for a brief time.
"He said they were going to live off the land," Cain said. "When he came back, his head was shaved and he was wearing camouflage fatigues."
When Vice returned a couple of months later, he railed about how much he hated the federal government and started acting even more oddly, neighbors said.
Cain said his relations with Vice became especially tense in November after he came home and found that someone had spray-painted "I hate Derrick" on the road in front of his driveway. Cain said he suspected his neighbor and called authorities.
"I've had lots of calls about this guy before," said Beverland.
If it hadn't been for the odd certificate stamped with an official-looking state of Kentucky seal Cain found inside the envelope Friday he might not have connected it to Vice. But Cain had been invited to Vice's home several times over the years. The two men even drank beer together a couple of times, Cain said. During one of those visits that Vice told Cain he was a mechanical engineer and had gone to the University of Kentucky. Vice also told Cain and other neighbors that he had worked with GTE for several years before it was absorbed by Verizon.
Records show Vice filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on Jan. 14, 2003. Two days later, a mortgage company filed foreclosure proceedings against Vice's house, records show. Neighbors said Friday that's about the same time Vice started behaving so oddly.
Vice's wife told ABC Action News that he called her Friday morning and threatened to kill her.
"You've seen A Beautiful Mind?" she said, referring to the 2001 movie starring Russell Crow about a brilliant but disturbed mathematician. "That is what it is like."
"He's very intelligent," she said. "But sometimes he has a hard time dealing with stress. And he doesn't like ... injustice."
By late Friday afternoon, the chaotic crush of fire trucks, police cars and media vans had left. But fear remained on Cypress View Drive, even though the mayor said the white substance was determined to be self-rising flour and Cain said authorities told him it was baking powder.
The subdivision's normally quiet streets were buzzing with rumors. The Sheriff's Office posted an extra patrol. People driving home from work paused to stare at Vice's modest stucco home. Nearby, Vice's neighbors stood at the edge of their neatly manicured lawns exchanging bits and pieces of what they knew about Vice and his family.
"They were like the perfect couple," said Tricia Julian, Cain's girlfriend. "He had a job. She had a job. They had a Hummer and a Corvette."
The Pinellas Sheriff's Office is searching for Vice, who is wanted on charges of violation of probation and planting of a destructive device. He is white, 6 feet tall, 200 pounds and has brown hair in a military-style cut. Deputies believe he is driving a blue 1999 Ford Expedition. Anyone with information is asked to call (727) 582-6200 or 1-800-873-TIPS.
Times staff writers Graham Brink, Jacob Fries and Nora Koch and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.