Tacoma man says he set off homemade bombs to celebrate Seahawks

A man charged with setting off explosives in his East Tacoma neighborhood for weeks insists he was doing it to celebrate the Seattle Seahawks.

Lance Kapsh, 33, pleaded not guilty Thursday to unlawful manufacture, use, possession, transport or storage of an improvised explosive device without a license. He was ordered held in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

On Wednesday, a SWAT team served a warrant at the home in the 2100 block of East 62nd Street that Kapsh shares with his grandfather, Marty Kapsh. The elder Kapsh later complained about how the SWAT team — equipped in what he described as “full battle rattle” — handled the search.

Police said neighbors have been complaining for two weeks about explosions filling the street with smoke, shaking houses, rattling windows and knocking items off shelves.

The explosions went off from noon to midnight, sometimes several times a day, they said.

Lance Kapsh admitted to making up to seven bombs using sparklers, prosecutors said.

“He denied doing this for any particular purpose except for celebrating the Seahawks win a couple of weeks ago,” according to charging papers.

Police said they found empty packages of sparklers and charred pieces of explosive devices near the home. Surveillance footage also shows someone coming out of Kapsh’s home and lighting explosives, police said.

Two of the makeshift bombs were lit near a gas pipeline, police said.

No one was hurt in any of the explosions.

This story was originally published January 30, 2015 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Tacoma man says he set off homemade bombs to celebrate Seahawks."