In every issue of this fine rag my hack team of wannabe journalists and I tackle some of the most laughable criminal acts that have recently happened in our area. Then - if we're doing our job - we write about those crimes in a way that makes you chuckle, or at the very least gives you something to do other than walk around your house topless when it gets hot. No one needs to see that.

It's not the most important job, but someone has to do it. At the Weekly Volcano Crime Desk, along with messing with Phish fans, it's our life's work.

This week's Ragnet takes place in Tacoma, where the situation sometimes gets the best of people.

Enjoy. - Matt Driscoll

When your home gets burglarized it can be a fairly traumatic experience. Your door has probably been kicked in, or your window broken. Your stuff is gone, your home violated. Chances are, whatever the burglar(s) left behind has been strewn everywhere, only adding to the chaos.

Being burglarized sucks (just ask Cam Newton's former classmates at the University of Florida). It can lead you to do some pretty irrational, un-thought-out stuff.

Take, for instance, the story of 49-year-old Curtis Todd Norwood, who pleaded not guilty last week to three counts of manufacturing, selling or offering to sell explosives and one count of reckless endangerment according to reports on the News Tribune's Lights & Sirens blog.

Wait! What does Curtis Todd Norwood - he of the aforementioned, alleged explosives - have to do with someone recently victimized by burglary, you ask? 

It's simple, really. ...

According to reports, Norwood called police Tuesday night after his home in the 3500 block of North Villard Street was burglarized. Naturally, officers responded ... as they're apt to do after someone calls 911 to report a burglary. Soon, officers were inside Norwood's home looking for evidence (again, as they're apt to do after someone calls 911 to report a burglary).

This is where Norwood's trouble began.

According to reports, while investigating Norwood's residence, police allegedly came across three suspected pipe bombs in the home. Rather than give Norwood a break, as the victim of a recent burglary, the boys in blue called in the Tacoma Police Department's explosives disposal team.

After positively identifying the pipe bombs as, well, pipe bombs, the explosives disposal team went to work. They were able to successfully remove the caps of two of the pipe bombs using a specialized tool. Unfortunately, the third bomb exploded in the house, causing damages but no injuries.

At the time of his arrest, according to the News Tribune's quotes of police spokesman Mark Fulghum, Norwood told officers the devices were not his and they had been around for several years. (No word yet on whether Fulghum immediately fell asleep after giving the quote ... damn Advil PM.) Norwood later told police that he'd had the bombs since 1990 and typically stored them in the drawer of a wooden gun cabinet in his bedroom.

Interestingly enough, the burglars allegedly stole four rifles and four pistols from this very cabinet, but opted to leave the pipe bombs.

Probably a good call.

Bail was set for Norwood at $5,000. - Four-Fingered Jim, Pipe Bomb Related Crime Correspondent