Stunning New Details In NJ Parade Explosives Case (UPDATED)

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ — Stunning new details have emerged Thursday morning in South Plainfield's last-minute decision to cancel its Labor Day parade after "destructive devices" were found near the parade route, and a 55-year-old South Plainfield man, Thomas Kaiser, was arrested.

Kaiser's friends and family continue to insist all he had were fireworks. But police sources close to the case strongly disagree.

"The characterization of these as 'fireworks' is not accurate; that is a mischaracterization," a law enforcement source very close to the case told Patch Thursday morning. "These were crude, rudimentary explosives that could have been quite dangerous."

NJ.com is reporting that Kaiser's alleged homemade explosives contained "shards of glass" as well as BB-ball-type pellets, both of which could act like shrapnel.

Kaiser is accused of hastily deconstructing his homemade explosives once he realized police were going to search his home, and throwing them into trash cans near the route of the Labor Day parade— hence, why the parade was abruptly canceled Monday. One of those locations was the steel garbage bin outside the Grant Elementary School parking lot on Cromwell Place, according to the affidavit, which was released by the Middlesex County Prosecutor. In the bin, the New Jersey State Police Bomb Unit found fuses, a plastic bottle of “Pirodex” and a bag containing explosive powder, authorities said.

The other locations were Cady Lane near the intersection of Maple Avenue, the side of Cedar Lane and the intersection of Kenyon and Edgare avenues. “The NJSP Bomb Unit confirmed the devices field tested positive as explosive-type destructive devices,” the affidavit said.

Kaiser is currently being held at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold. He is scheduled to appear before a judge in Superior Court on Friday. In fact, the Monmouth County prosecutor's office thinks Kaiser is such a safety risk that they will be requesting tomorrow he be kept in jail until his trial.

Kaiser was arrested Monday and charged with second- and third-degree offenses for possession of a destructive device. He was hit with even more charges yesterday, after police revealed four additional destructive devices were located in the vicinity of the parade route.

Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife Tammy were supposed to walk in the town's Labor Day parade, and the borough of South Plainfield canceled the entire parade at the last minute out of "an abundance of caution."

According to the law enforcement source, Kaiser discarded the explosives after he learned police were going to search his house on West Crescent Parkway in South Plainfield. He deconstructed the explosives and discarded them in multiple garbage cans near his home, including one near an elementary school. The explosives were not directly placed along the parade route.

Kaiser has now been charged by Middlesex County with four new counts of possession of a prohibited device in the third degree, and one count of tampering with evidence, for allegedly trying to discard of the explosives.

Earlier this week, Kaiser's brother was insistent that all his brother had were fireworks, and that this is all an overreaction by prosecutors in two New Jersey counties, Middlesex and Monmouth, as the case originated at Donovan's Reef in Sea Bright.

"It's ridiculous the way people are shooting from the hip and falsifying stories," Kaiser's brother told 1010 Wins earlier this week. "It's one firework. I know they're illegal in the sate of New Jersey. He knows they're illegal in the state of New Jersey. But it's a firework. It's not a bomb."

"His brother can say what he wants, but to use the term 'fireworks' is ... just not accurate," said the police source.

As Patch initially reported, this all started after a suspicious package was initially found at Donovan's Reef in Sea Bright on Sunday. The band that was playing there that day, Guns 4 Hire, said on their Facebook page it was merely fireworks brought by an unidentified fan to their show.

But the discovery was enough to cause a mass evacuation of Donovan's Reef on Sunday. That fan has been identified as Kaiser, and police searched his South Plainfield home Sunday, where they "learned that there were other destructive devices near his home," the Middlesex County prosecutor said.

It was Sea Bright police who initially charged Kaiser with the two counts of possession of a destructive device.

Because Kaiser's home is near the parade route, it was canceled "out of an abundance of caution," said the Middlesex County prosecutor's office. Police never said Murphy or his wife were at risk.

Kaiser has remained at the county jail since he was first arrested; his detention hearing is scheduled for 9 o'clock on Friday morning.

He does not have a criminal record, and it doesn’t appear he was on law enforcement’s radar prior to this incident.

All Patch's coverage of this incident: Initial report: Explosive Devices Stop NJ Labor Parade, Murphy Visit (UPDATED)

More Charges Expected After South Plainfield Parade Canceled