25 years ago: Police defuse homemade bomb at local store

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 15, 1988:

A homemade bomb had been discovered this morning at JL’s Westridge grocery store, Sixth and Kasold. A store employee had discovered the device at about 8:45 a.m. while writing up a stock order in the aisle containing disposable diapers. “I was just writing my order and I found the bomb back there,” the employee reported. “I didn’t really know for sure, but it sure looked like a bomb. It had a clock.” He added that the container also had “some sort of liquid” as well as a jar and some wires. Fewer than 20 people, including about 10 employees, had been in the store when the bomb was discovered. The store was evacuated while Lawrence police detective Barbara Sult defused the device, with Lawrence firefighters standing by. The incident had ended by 9:30 a.m., when the store was reopened for business. Later, police chief Ron Olin said that the package had been “a crudely constructed device that we consider to be genuine. We believe it would have ignited.”