Police find pipe bomb during traffic stop in Kannapolis

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — A street in Kannapolis was shut down Tuesday morning after a pipe bomb was found in a vehicle.

At approximately 4 a.m., an officer with the Kannapolis Police Department stopped a 1991 Chevrolet truck on Springway Drive near South Main Street for having a fictitious registration from the state of Virginia.

The officer then pulled the vehicle over and observed suspicious items inside the vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle, 41-year-old Jamie Stirewalt, agreed to let police search the truck. Inside, police found meth, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and a device that resembled a pipe bomb.

Nearby residents were notified and the Cabarrus County Bomb Squad responded to the scene. After confirming it was a pipe bomb, the device was safely detonated, according to police.

Stirewalt told Kannapolis police he lived with his parents in Rowan County so the sheriff’s office got a search warrant for that home on Hidden Pond Lane in China Grove.

Detectives also got a search warrant for a home Stirewalt had been to on Gee Drive in Kannapolis.

Multiple agencies executed the search warrants and did not find another device or anything that would have been a threat to the public.

Authorities seized narcotics from the home on Gee Drive where the investigation is ongoing.

No injuries or property damage were reported.

Chondra Hall told Channel 9 that she didn’t expect to meet a bomb squad on her way to work.

“I was like a bomb? What? The whole road, the street was blocked off,” Hall said.

Hall said she captured a photo of the robot shortly before she heard the detonation of the possible bomb.

“I heard a small explosion, like a small boom where I imagine they found the bomb and detonated it somewhere,” Hall explained.

Moments later Hall said she saw officers huddle up and empty out what she said looked like black powder and pellets.

Police said Stirewalt is facing several charges including possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

He is being held in the Cabarrus County jail.

Police said the investigation into this incident is active and ongoing.

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