ST. FRANCIS, Minn. - A city council member from St. Francis was issued a misdemeanor citation for Filing a False Police Report from an incident last week.
On Friday, July 1, Leroy Schaffer called the St. Francis Police Department to report a suspicious package he received in the mail.
When an officer arrived, Schaffer showed him the package with a postmark from Chicago, IL still in the mailbox.
Schaffer told the officer he thought it was a bomb because, "he was in politics and has lots of enemies."
When Schaffer insisted the officer open the package, the officer refused to do so in case the package actually contained a harmful device.
Schaffer then grabbed the package, opened it, and revealed shredded paper and what appeared to be a hand grenade.
He told the officer the grenade was, "a dud," and showed the officer a hole drilled in the bottom of the grenade.
There was also a note in the box that stated, "The next one will be real."
The officer then took the novelty grenade as evidence and requested assistance from the Anoka County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division and Crime Scene Unit.
Upon arrival, they asked Scheffer if they could look inside his home which he granted them permission to do so.
Detectives found a sheet of address labels from the "Paralyzed Veterans of America" with one label missing. There was an identical label used on the package.
Schaffer was interviewed by Detectives and admitted he drove to Chicago and sent the package to himself.
He indicated he did so for sympathy from the public, claiming, "There's a lot of people out there that want to kill me, that's why I sent it to myself."
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