Crime & Safety

Easton Man Arrested on Multiple Charges After Homemade Explosives Found in Foxborough Hotel

Stephen A. Mudge Jr. of 189 Prospect St., Easton was arrested and charged on two warrants and eight counts possession of a bomb Friday after an investigation led Foxborough Police to find homemade explosives in his room at Americas Best Value Inn.

UPDATE: (10:32 a.m., July 16): Norton Police have charged Stephen A. Mudge Jr. with breaking and entering in the daytime, malicious destruction of property and more than $250 in larceny after he was arrested by Foxborough Police Friday. Norton Police identified Mudge as a Taunton resident, living on Broadway Street. He is the suspect of a house break at 111 Bay Rd., Norton, that occurred on July 5.

UPDATE (11:36 p.m., July 13): Stephen A. Mudge Jr.'s father told Foxborough Patch in an e-mail that his son has "not lived at 189 Prospect St., since January." Foxborough Police detective Tom Kirrane said Mudge Jr. and his female acquaintance from Foxborough have been living in a house in Taunton and Mudge Jr. has been seen around the Taunton/Brockton area, but his "home address," is in Easton. In addition to the eight counts of possession of a destructive or incendiary device, Mudge Jr. faces a charge for possession of a Class B drug, according to police documents.

ORIGINAL POST: An Easton man was arrested on two warrants in Foxborough Friday and charged additionally with eight counts possession of a bomb after Foxborough Police found eight homemade explosives in his hotel room at on Washington Street, according to Foxborough Police Detective Tom Kirrane.

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One of those explosives in particular, a M1000, according to Kirrane, would have killed everyone in the room and taken out a quarter of the hotel if it went off.

"[The Massachusetts State Police] said the large device, the M1000, would have killed all of us in the room had it gone off and taken probably a quarter of the hotel out," Kirrane said. "We were walking around and if that had gone off they said it would have killed everybody in the room and taken this quarter of the building right out."

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Stephen Mudge, 41, of 189 Prospect St. in Easton was arrested on two warrants – default and straight – for breaking and entering in Raynham and Easton after Foxborough Police set up surveillance at America’s Best Value Inn as part of a two-week investigation.

"There’s been an ongoing investigation with the town of Raynham and Easton regarding house breaks," Kirrane said. "One subject, the female acquaintance of Stephen Mudge of Easton is a Foxborough resident and she was arrested two days ago I believe on a warrant for breaking and entering and burglary. She was arraigned in Taunton District Court."

On Friday, Foxborough Police, according to Kirrane, observed Mudge's female acquaintance "park her car over at the " and enter the hotel.

"[She] parked behind [the hotel] and we knew that she was staying here and that he was probably staying here too because he is aware of the warrants," Kirrane said, who added the Taunton home of the two suspects has been under surveillance as well.

"We got a piece of luck and here we are," said Kirrane.

Friday's incident began roughly at 2 p.m. when Foxborough Police observed Mudge's acquaintance. Shortly after, Mudge was taken into custody and the homemade explosives were found in his room on the second floor of the hotel.

"When Mudge was taken into custody, almost immediately when [his acquaintance] entered the room, [we saw] homemade explosives were on a bed in a white plastic shopping bag," Kirrane said.

Foxborough Police notified Foxborough Fire who then notified Massachusetts State Police and MSP Bomb Squad of the situation. More than 20 guests and staff members and one dog were evacuated from the hotel.

"You don’t want to put something like that in your own car and bring it back to the station and have it blow up," Kirrane said of the homemade explosives. "We’re not experienced with explosives ... that’s a job for the state police bomb squad. So we called the fire department, who in turn called the state police."

After guests and staff were evacuated to the front parking lot of the hotel, Foxborough Police, Fire and MSP Bomb Squad personnel moved the homemade explosives to a field behind the back parking lot of the hotel and prepared to destroy the devices. That process took nearly two hours to complete.

"Foxborough and Massachusetts State Police personnel took samples of the type of powder that is in the explosives and the long process going on was that they cut them so they can take the samples for lab tests and fingerprints," Kirrane said. "That’s what took the time."

After those eight samples were taken, "the hole was put in the ground and they detonated the explosives," Kirrane said.

Kirrane credited the work of all departments involved for properly handling a potentially deadly situation.

"The great thing is we have such a good fire department and these guys have their expertise and the state police do this stuff every day, they are trained to do this," Kirrane said.

From here, Kirrane said Foxborough Police will investigate why Mudge had possession of these eight explosives.

"Our job now is to find out why he had the explosives, whether he manufactured them himself, they are homemade and for what reason he was going to use them. What criminal act was he going to do with them," said Kirrane.


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