UPDATE: Charges of first-degree burglary, theft, possession of stolen property, trafficking stolen property and possession of explosives were dismissed against both Austin Mowe and Nathanael Willard on Jan. 31, 2019, in Cowlitz County Superior Court, according to online records.
Two Vancouver men were arrested on explosives- and burglary-related charges on Saturday afternoon. According to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, Nathanael Willard and Austin Mowe, both 21 years old and both of Vancouver, are being held without bail in the Cowlitz County Jail.
On Wednesday, Cowlitz County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a commercial burglary of an explosives storage site in a remote location in the eastern part of the county. A representative of the Dyno Nobel Company, which specializes in manufacturing and distribution of explosives, said that Dyno Nobel leases a facility on rural Weyerhaeuser property where it maintains a small inventory of commercial explosive materials — primarily blasting caps. The facility is behind a locked gate and has numerous other levels of security.
According to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, “significant force was used to defeat the levels of security and gain access to the building. Several thousand blasting caps were stolen.” Each cap was about the size of a ballpoint pen. The “significant force” may have been a small car or pickup truck.
