DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170497

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   23 lines

SHARP-EYED CANOEIST SPOTS PIPE BOMB NEAR ZOO, CALLS POLICE

A canoeist thought something was amiss when he spotted an object on the side of the Lafayette River as he passed the Virginia Zoo. When he checked it out, he found it was a pipe bomb.

``It was planted on the bank of the river,'' said Jack Goldhorn, a fire department spokesman. The canoeist, he said, ``actually picked it up. Once he saw a fuse coming out of one end, he put it down and called us.''

Norfolk police and firefighters responded and closed off the area about 6 p.m. State Police bomb technicians arrived a short time later and safely exploded the device about 8:30 p.m. Pieces were collected and turned over to investigators.

Goldhorn said the device never posed a danger to any zoo facilities or animals and was not placed near any structures.

So why was it planted where it was? ``We have no idea at all,'' Goldhorn said. ``We don't know whether someone dumped it there or planted it.''

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