Whenever William Weimer hears news reports using words like “improvised explosives,” the fireworks company executive immediately orders checks to see if suspects shopped at one of his stores.
So when he heard about the March 7 IED attack in New York City outside Gracie Mansion and the names of the two Bucks County suspects, he made that call.
“This isn’t my first rodeo. Whenever we hear the word fireworks or improvised device, we, matter of factly, check our records,” said Weimer, vice-president and general counsel for the Ohio-based Phantom Fireworks, the largest U.S. brick and mortar fireworks business.
Weimer’s instincts were right.
He quickly confirmed one suspect, Emir Balat, 18, of Middletown, visited his Penndel store March 2 where he paid $6.89 cash for a 20-foot roll of consumer-grade fireworks safety fuse.
Weimer notified federal authorities, who immediately obtained a subpoena for the records and footage.
It was not known Wednesday if the fuse Balat purchased was used in either of the two alleged Improvised explosive devices that authorities said he attempted to detonate Saturday outside Gracie Mansion in Manhattan in what federal investigators have called a failed “ISIS-inspired” terrorism plot.
From start to finish, Balat spent no more than 20 minutes inside the Phantom Fireworks store on Bellevue Avenue, according to Weimer. Phantom Fireworks also has a store in Morrisville.
After confirming the record of the sale, and what he bought, staff checked the store surveillance video, which showed Balat enter the store, shop, pay and fill out mandatory paperwork, Weimer said.
In Pennsylvania, fireworks customers are required to show identification, which is scanned, and sign a form acknowledging the buyer is old enough to purchase fireworks and won’t use them for an improper purpose.
“He lied there,” Weimer added.
The fuse purchase was not anything that signaled a red flag for employees, Weimer said.
“There was nothing about it that was remarkable,” he added.
What is interesting, Weimer said, is the type of fuse Balat purchased is “fairly flimsy,” easily extinguished and slow-burning, unlike the high-test fuses used on commercial fireworks.
Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, of Newtown Township, allegedly admitted that they were inspired by the terrorist group ISIS to bring homemade improvised explosive devices to an anti-Islam protest led by far-right conservative influencer Jake Lang and counter protests.
The teens remain incarcerated in federal custody facing multiple terrorism charges.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Southern New York, which is prosecuting the teens, said March 11 there were no planned updates or press conferences on the case.
FBI and Middletown police bomb experts found “explosive residue” overnight March 9 while executing search warrants at a Public Storage business on South Flowers Mill Road connected to the teen suspects. A controlled detonation was conducted to dispose of the material.
One of two homemade explosive devices the men allegedly attempted to detonate contained extremely dangerous and volatile explosive chemicals, according to federal investigators.
Neither attorney listed as representing Balat and Kayumi immediately responded to email requests for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday.
