The couple was separated, taking turns staying at their Brooklyn Park home. That agreement went grimly awry on Wednesday, when, the wife told police, her husband showed up at the house and threatened her, claiming he'd rigged a Pringles potato chip can to explode.
Soon afterwards, Merrilee Johnson, who lives across the street from the couple's home in the 8200 block of Vincent Avenue N., was startled to see two men in camouflage outfits outside her house at 8:15 a.m.
"We don't want you in your house," she was told before being sent away from a scene that she said would include 12 police officers and an armored truck in her driveway.
"This was pretty high-powered stuff," Johnson said.
As it turned out, the show of force was for good reason, for Robert A. Otto, 40, wasn't lying about his makeshift bomb, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Hennepin County District Court.
Officers determined that the green Pringles can that Otto allegedly held over his wife's head "was an incendiary device that was capable of exploding and killing people within several feet," the charges against him state.
The wife, who fled the home with a witness, also reported seeing wires around the house, leading her to speculate that the house might be "booby trapped." But the complaint makes no mention of what became of that part of the investigation, and a Brooklyn Park detective who worked on the case could not be reached for comment Friday.
Otto, who was booked into the Hennepin County jail Thursday, is charged with possession of an explosive or incendiary device, terroristic threats and interference with an emergency call.
