Americana: Stereo Boom

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When the post office in Troy, Mich., summoned Michael Achorn to pick up a 2-ft.-long 40-lb. package, his wife Margaret cheerfully went to accept it, but as she drove it back to her office in Detroit, she began to worry. The box was from Montgomery Ward, but the sender, Edward Achorn, was unknown to Margaret and her husband despite the identical last name. What if the thing was a bomb? She telephoned postal authorities.

Postal Inspector J.M. Black reasoned that since she had taken delivery, it was her problem, not the post office's. He suggested calling the Detroit police bomb squad. The bomb squad soon arrived with eight squad cars and an armored truck. They took the suspected bomb in the armored truck to a remote tip of Belle Isle in the middle of the Detroit River. There they wrapped detonating cord around the package and, as they say in the bomb business, "opened it remotely."

When the debris settled, all that was left intact was the factory warranty for the contents: a $450 stereo AM-FM receiver and a tape deck console. Now the only mystery is who is Edward Achorn and why did he send Michael and Margaret such a nice Christmas present?