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Eviction leads to bomb squad, evacuations at Orange Co. condo complex

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County deputies were waiting for a search warrant late Tuesday evening so they could enter an apartment where something inside sparked evacuations and sent a whole neighborhood into lockdown.

"I just heard someone say we need to evacuate the building and I came outside and they're like, 'You need to get out your house,' and I'm like, 'Why?' and they said it was a bomb threat," said Connie Hafley, who lives in the complex.

Hafley said she ran out of her building inside the Cypress Pointe apartment complex after she heard the property manager screaming that announcement.

"It was chaotic for me because I was scared. I didn't know what was going on," said Hafley.

Orange County deputies said they were serving an eviction notice to William Parsons, 52, in a unit on the second floor of his building. Deputies said Parsons refused to come out.

"They tried to push the door in. The door would not budge, it was obviously barricaded," said Leff Williamson of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

After several hours of negotiating, Parsons came out. But what deputies found inside the unit was suspicious enough that it had them call for backup from the bomb squad and the FBI.

"There were multiple devices inside. Whether they were live, whether they were explosive, whether they weren't explosive, I don't have any information on that," said Williamson.

Eighteen units were evacuated while crews investigated.

For Parsons' neighbor, it all comes as a surprise.

"I didn't have any fear of him. He was a nice gentleman, so when they said it was him I was like, 'Wow,'" said Hafley.

Parsons is being held in the Orange County Jail. Investigators said he was being charged with planting a hoax device. But they still have to search his apartment and charges could change or be added.