HENRICO COUNTY, Va. – The woman arrested and charged in a bomb scare that cleared a busy parking lot in Short Pump apologized to the public during a jailhouse interview.
Daphne Page, 52 of Richmond, was charged with felony constructing or using a hoax firebomb.
"I feel stupid having spent a dollar on a stupid clock at a yard sale," Page told WTVR CBS 6 reporter Brendan King from the Henrico County Jail Saturday. "I feel really dumb."
Daphne Page spoke to CBS 6's Brendan King inside the Henrico Jail on Saturday.
Police, fire, and Hazmat crews responded to the Whole Foods parking lot in Short Pump 5:05 p.m. Friday after a report of a "suspicious device" inside a vehicle.
Police said they received a call from someone who said they spotted what they believed to be a bomb inside a red Mercedes station wagon in the parking lot at 11173 West Broad Street.
Investigators tell WTVR CBS 6 the suspicious device looks like a bomb to the average person.
Page said the device was actually a clock designed to look like dynamite that she bought at a yard sale on Floyd Avenue in Richmond Sunday.
"I picked it up and thought, 'Haha, this is funny. My daughter’s birthday is coming up she might find this amusing," Page explained.
Page said she put the clock in a box in the backseat of her car with plans to drive to Vermont next week to visit her daughter in college.
Police said Page was cooperative with their investigation.
The investigation caused police to clear the parking lot for five hours while a bomb robot determined the device was fake.
"I felt a certain sense of permission to be casual with this clock," Page said. "It was available on the market. If it’s legal to sell why shouldn’t it be legal for me to have it?"
Page was charged based on Virginia code 18.2-85 which reads in part "Hoax explosive device" means any device which by its design, construction,content or characteristics appears to be or to contain a bomb or other destructive device or explosive but which is an imitation of any such device or explosive."
"I just question the judgement of that one person who decided to walk by," Page explained.
Because of the severity of the charge, Page was not granted bond and will stay in the Henrico Jail until she appears before a judge Monday.
