Man, 67, Gets 2 Years For Leaving Pipe Bombs at Vickery Creek Park

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Roswell, GA -- A Cobb County man has been sentenced to two years in prison for creating a hoax when he left a backpack containing two inoperable pipe bombs in Vickery Creek Park in Roswell.

Following his two-year prison sentence, Michael C. Sibley, 67, will serve one year of supervised release, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Tuesday.

The Marietta resident pleaded guilty to the charges on Sept. 9, 2015.

“Sibley built two nearly-operable pipe bombs that he recklessly left in Vickery Creek Park in a place intended to inflict maximum panic among the public,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “He compounded the crime by preying on stereotypical fears and prejudices by making it appear the bombs were planted by a Muslim. Thankfully an alert park visitor discovered and immediately reported the bag containing the bombs to police.”

On Nov. 4, 2014, visitors to the park, which is part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Roswell, discovered an abandoned bag and contacted Roswell police.

Upon inspecting the bag, officers unearthed what appeared to be two constructed pipe bombs that “fortunately omitted one component and, therefore, were not capable of immediate detonation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

About 400 nails and screws were attached to the outside of the tubing, making it consistent with construction designed for maximum fragmentation upon explosion, the office added.

On the bag containing the bombs, Sibley wrote a traditionally Muslim name on the backpack and he placed inside the bag, among other things, two books: “The Rape of Kuwait” and “The Holy Qur’an.”

He also placed papers printed from three websites in the bag: the 2015 Atlanta Falcons schedule, a printout from a website for a Jewish Community Center in the Atlanta area and a printout from the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s website.

These printouts were included to convey threats to these locations as well.

On March 20, 2015, Sibley voluntarily reached out to FBI agents and asked for a meeting. That’s when the Roswell resident confessed to making the pipe bombs and placing them in the park, Horn said.

Sibley, according to the office, said he left the contents at the park to “wake up” American citizens.

He stated that the Mexican border is “poorly defended,” and people are entering the United States illegally, Horn stated.

He also told authorities he made the explosives and placed them in the park to make people “realize that if this can happen in Roswell, Georgia, it can happen anywhere,” the press release said.

“The sentencing of Mr. Sibley to two years in federal prison should clearly illustrate to him and to others the serious nature of leaving a backpack device in a public setting for the specific purpose of creating panic and distress,” said J. Britt Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office. “The law enforcement response and the resulting federal investigation was extensive and costly to the taxpaying public.”

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