Deputies: Teen planned to make homemade bomb

Katie Fretland

Sentinel Staff Writer

3:38 PM EDT, October 19, 2007

A 16-year-old boy planned to make a homemade bomb to set off at his Seminole County school using a Sharpie pen, gun powder, pellets and a fuse, deputies said today.

Michael Drnek, of Clermont, sent a text message to another student explaining his plan to attack the private school, Pace Brantley, said Sgt. John Herrell.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office intercepted the message and notified Lake County investigators to search Drnek's home.

Detectives and members of Lake's Hazardous Device Team searched Drnek's residence with his parents' permission and discovered the bomb-making materials in a black safe in his bedroom floor, Cpl. Willis Carter said in an arrest affidavit.

His father picked him up from school and delivered him to a substation of the Lake County Sheriff's Office for booking. He was arrested on charges of possession of a destructive device with intent to do bodily harm and transported to juvenile detention.