B.J. Alan Co.'s Database Turns Up Bomber’s Purchase
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Within minutes of The Wall Street Journal emailing subscribers its news alert that reported Tamerian Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston Marathon bomber who died in the police shootout, purchased large pyrotechnic devices Feb. 6 at Phantom Fireworks in Seabrook, N.H., calls from news organizations across the country began pouring into B.J. Alan Co.’s headquarters here.
“As we speak, CNN is at our showroom in Seabrooke,” said Bruce Zoldan, CEO of B.J. Alan, Phantom Fireworks’ corporate parent, as he and the company’s general counsel, William Weimer, fielded the onslaught of requests for comment.
“Certainly it’s not something we would want to be involved with,” Zoldan told The Business Journal. “Obviously we’d rather be on the offense of selling fireworks than on the defense of protecting the reputation of the consumer fireworks industry.”
The company CEO says Phantom operates the consumer fireworks industry’s “most sophisticated system for capturing customer names for the purpose of marketing those customers again but also for the ability of law enforcement to look at a potential criminal mind.”
Last Thursday FBI agents called B.J. Alan Co.’s head of security, retired FBI agent Robert Kroner, and asked him to check the database for purchases by Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzokhar, who remains hospitalized and is charged with carrying out the bombings.
“We immediately provided through subpoena the information to the FBI office in Boston,” Zoldan says. “We’re continuing to work with the FBI on areas they’re asked us for confidentiality, and we’re cooperating with them in every way possible.”
Zoldan and Weimer emphasized in their press statements that the FBI is still conducting extensive tests of the bomb material and has not confirmed that the black powder contained in the pyrotechnic devices Tsarnaev purchased -- two “Lock & Load” reloadable mortar kits that each contain 24 shells and four firing tubes -- was used in the Boston bombings.
If it were, “It would take a lot of work and a lot of product -- much more than he bought -- to do what was done on Marathon day. So more than likely, they found more avenues, or someone else was buying fireworks and they worked hard to dissect the small quantities of explosive powders,” Zoldan says.
Tsarnaev was one of just three customers who purchased fireworks Feb. 6 at Phantom’s showroom near the Massachusetts border. As required by New Hampshire law, he had to provide his drivers license, which was scanned.
“It wasn’t hard for the sales clerk to remember him,” Zoldan says. “He told her he wanted the most powerful item we have.”
Much larger quantities of explosive black powder can be purchased “at Wal-Mart and other big-box stores,” he notes. “It would have been much easier for him if his purpose was to dissect and cut out the black powder to just go somewhere that sells black powder.”
In 2010, the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, attempted to use products from Phantom Fireworks to set off a chain reaction and ignite a car bomb. Shahzad’s plan failed.
Federal law limits the amount of explosive powder contained in consumer fireworks and the Consumer Product Safety Commission regulates the industry. By comparison, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulate fireworks used in large public displays.
“Our products are sold for the purpose of Americans celebrating the freedom of being in this country and celebrating the first day of America,” Zoldan says. “And for foreign interests to come here with brainwashed anti-American feelings and the desire to kill and maim innocent people by using products Americans use to celebrate their freedom – it’s sad. And we’re sad.”
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Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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