Deputies: Man lit pipe bomb that flew into neighbor's backyard in Orange City

ORANGE CITY, Fla. — An Orange City man is accused of lighting a homemade pipe bomb in his backyard that took flight into his neighbor’s yard, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

Christopher Green, 25, said it wasn't a bomb but rather a model rocket.

Green posted a video Saturday on Facebook that shows him igniting some type of a device in his backyard.

TRENDING NOW:

Deputies said the incident happened around 5:30 p.m. Saturday on Liskeard Avenue.

He said it unexpectedly flew up off the ground and into a neighbor's yard where it landed by a white umbrella.

“I am incredibly sorry to anyone who had to deal with that last night,” Green said.

In the video he posted on his Facebook page, he calls it his rocket engine, before lighting it up.

For about 20 seconds, all it does is lie there on the ground hissing and smoking. Then all of a sudden, it flies away.

Neighbor Vikki Johnson said she was doing work in her backyard when she thought a firework went off, until she walked over to where it landed.

“I felt heat and I said, ‘OK that's not a normal anything,’” Johnson said. “So that's when I went inside, I got my phone.”

Deputies rushed over and eventually charged Green for making a destructive device.

Green told deputies that he used stump remover mixed with sugar to make smoke bombs, according to a release.

“Never in my life have I tried to hurt anyone,” Green said. “I did robotics in high school. It's just, I like to play with stuff.”

Neighbors living within a few houses from where this all happened were evacuated just in case.

“The reason that it was in a piece of metal pipe was so that I'd be heavier so that it wouldn't take off,” Green said.

Green bonded out of jail early Sunday morning.

Green later wrote on Facebook "I went to jail for this. Could be facing up to 10 years. Hope they take it easy."

A search of Volusia County court records show Green has been arrested twice before for drug charges.

Deputies said there were no injuries and the neighborhood was evacuated as a precaution.

PIPE BOMB ARREST: @VolusiaSheriff investigators say a man built a pipe bomb yesterday that flew into a neighbor’s yard, scaring her! Tonight, the suspect is apologizing, but is insisting it was NOT a bomb. The exclusive interview after the game on #WFTV at 6pm. @WFTV pic.twitter.com/Suh7LcGgoY
— Megan Cruz (@MeganWFTV) April 21, 2019

Orange City man arrested after homemade pipe bomb takes flight into neighbor's yard: https://t.co/GZaeOHTLk3
— Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) April 21, 2019