STATEN ISLAND — Police arrested a man in connection with three makeshift bombs that were planted around Staten Island in recent weeks, sources say.
The 54-year-old man was motivate by jealousy of a neighbor who became engaged and then married a 32-year-old woman the bomb maker was infatuated with, according to sources.
The suspect left a note written in Spanish at the scene of at least one of the devices railing against the woman's 35-year-old husband, sources said.
The couple was married on Sept. 14, the same day the last bomb was planted.
The arrest came just hours after DNAInfo New York reported that a special NYPD Task Force was put together to stop the spree.
The first device was found Sept. 3 on Cornell Street between Barrett Street and Forest Avenue. Police determined it was too crude to detonate and was initially considered a hoax, sources said.
But police then found a second device — a propane cylinder and wine bottle attached to a clock — on Sept. 12 on Brentwood Avenue near Henderson Street. Authorities then assigned a dozen investigators from the Arson and Explosion Squad and Staten Island detectives to work on the case.
The last device was found on Saturday when sanitation workers collecting garbage at Grymes Hill near St. John's University noticed a bag containing a bottle and wires.
The bomb squad was called in and recovered the crude device, which consisted of two bottles, one filled with gasoline and the other with propane, attached by wires to a battery and lighter, and filled with screws and nails, cops said.
Investigators traced the license plate of from a black car caught on security video leaving the scene of one of the incidents that was also seen driving nea the woman and her husband's home, according to sources.
Police found the car's owner, who told them he lent the vehicle to the suspect, who they then arrested Wednesday in Manhattan where he works as a custodian.
The suspect admitted to the crimes while in custody and took investigators to the various locations where the devices were left, sources said.
He was expected to be arraigned today.
