B.G. woman hurt by homemade bomb

A Battle Ground woman was hurt Friday when a homemade bomb in an energy drink bottle exploded after it was thrown over her fence.

Teri Heroux, 49, wasn’t seriously hurt in the incident, according to Battle Ground police Sgt. Aaron Kanooth. She was treated by paramedics for skin irritation on her legs and didn’t go to the hospital.

Heroux said she and her husband were the backyard of their Southeast 13th Street home at about 6 p.m. Friday when she heard her dogs barking at the fence and saw someone toss a plastic bottle into her backyard.

“We hollered at them to not throw things at the dogs but they were running down the street,” Heroux said Saturday. “I went to pick it up, and I was walking to take it back to the garbage can when it started getting hot.”

It turns out the bottle was filled with a chemical and a reactive agent, which caused the bottle to heat up and rapidly expand.

“Before I could get to the garbage can, it blew up and knocked me down,” she said.

The chemical inside caused stinging but didn’t cause significant burns.

“I was lucky it didn’t splash in my eyes,” she said. She said she was hurt more by the fall when the bottle exploded.

Kanooth said a group of juveniles were contacted after the incident but they couldn’t be positively identified. He said a report was taken for assault in the fourth degree, a gross misdemeanor.

Heroux said she thinks the target was not her but her dogs.

“I’m glad I picked it up and my dogs didn’t go blind sniffing the bottle,” she said.

Mark Bowder: 360-735-4512 or mark.bowder@columbian.com.