8th grader accused of making explosives during summer vacation

Rutherford County Juvinile Detention Center

It’s a standard question from teachers to their students when they return in the fall: “What did you do on summer vacation?”

Usually the responses are something like, “nothing,” or “we went to Florida,” or “I hung out in front of the drugstore,” but one Nashville 13-year-old had a decidedly unique response — he told his teacher he spent the summer making explosives.

The shocking admission prompted the teacher to contact police. The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department searched the boy’s home, where they say they found a homemade explosive device, according to The Tennessean.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol bomb squad was called in to dispose of the device as “precautions in case anything happened,” sheriff’s department spokesperson Lisa Marchesoni was quoted as saying. Marchesoni added, “We’re surprised a 13-year-old is making bombs and speaking about it openly. The mother didn’t know he had been doing it, but she cooperated with the search.”

The boy, who police did not identify because of his young age, was charged with the manufacture of prohibited weapons.

The boy’s grandfather told a reporter that investigators “asked him about two metal pipes that had been taped together,” saying that the device looked “like a bazooka to shoot bottle rockets higher.”

Neighbors told DNJ.com that the Smyrna Middle School student was a “good kid” that “likes watching MacGyver.”