An Iowa man jailed in Princeton, Illinois, is scheduled for a psychological evaluation and may face serious charges after claiming he was on the way to Washington to blow something up. The man jailed for making the threats has been identified as 44-year-old Terry Daniel of Cedar Rapids. Princeton Police Chief Tom Root says it began early Wednesday morning, somewhere east of the Quad Cities, when an Iowa man talked with fellow travelers on the citizens-band radio. A trucker started talking with the man on the C.B., and the trucker learned the man was heading for D.C. and either had explosives in his van or was on the way to pick something up. The trucker became increasingly disturbed by what he heard and finally called 911. The state patrol alerted police in the town of Princeton, which is along I-80 about 60 miles east of the Quad Cities. “This van shows up in our city,” the chief continues, and his officers found it at a Shell station about 3:45 in the morning. “It was the vehicle, and it was the suspect and we took him into custody.” Then, he says the Secret Service arrived, and the state police got involved as well as the state bomb squad. He says they never found explosives in the van, but did find all kinds of literature for white-supremacy groups, anti-government literature. “This guy definitely is…way out there,” says the chief. “This guy is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,” the chief says wonderingly. He notes Daniel apparently intended to get to D-C and had maps. “Whether or not he was actually going to stop and pick something up on the way (like a bomb), nobody’ll ever know at this point.” Chief Root says there’s no way he considers the Iowa man harmless. “This guy’s got seven aliases. He has a lengthy criminal history record on numerous charges and definitely considered to be a threat.” Though the case ended without incident, Chief Root says he was well aware it could have been very serious. He jokes that it’s a good day when there’s nothing exciting in police work. “When the bomb squad has a good day, they don’t find anything,” the chief says. Before they searched the van, authorities in the town of 7,000 people evacuated an area around the Interstate-80 gas station where Daniel had pulled off the highway for gas.
