An area in North St. Joseph was blocked off this afternoon after street crews found what appeared to resemble a pipe bomb.

Police blocked off an area near Blackwell Road and Savannah Road, and the Kansas City Police Department Bomb Squad detonated the device.

St Joseph Police Captain Kevin Castle says it was a piece of PVC pipe with some sort of explosive inside.

“Sometimes they’re legitimate devices and sometimes they’re not.  We treat them all like they are until we find out differently, and this one I’m glad we did because it was an actual device,” Castle said.

“If it were to explode and you were near it, it could injure or kill”

Castle says federal agents were on hand to collect forensic evidence after the device was blown up, in an effort to track its origin.