Man and woman found with homemade bomb in van, sleeping in Walmart parking lot, cops say

Police say an open door on a van led them to find an explosive device in the parking lot of a Walmart in Hillsborough early Thursday morning.

An officer found the 2002 Dodge Caravan parked, with a man and woman sleeping inside, near the garden center of the Walmart Supercenter on Hampton Pointe Boulevard about 1:30 a.m., police said in a press release issued Friday.

The man, Jimmy Ray Poythress, had warrants for arrest in Duplin and Wilson counties, according to the release.

Police searched the van and found drug paraphernalia and “what appeared to be a homemade explosive device within a bag,” the release said.

The Durham County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called in and determined the device to be “harmless,” police said.

“At this point, it appears these people had stopped while traveling through our area,” Hillsborough Chief Duane Hampton said in the release. “We have not linked them to any activity in our area but are sharing the information with other jurisdictions.”

Police said Poythress, 33, of Lucama in Wilson County, was charged with felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction and possession of a firearm by a felon, and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. He was held on a $117,000 bond.

The woman, 30-year-old Brandy Renee Benson, of Princeton in Johnston County, was charged with felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction, and held on a $25,000 bond, police said.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Man and woman found with homemade bomb in van, sleeping in Walmart parking lot, cops say."