White House Bomb Threat

In January 2005, two days before President George W. Bush’s second inauguration, a Michigan man named Lowell Timmers drove an old van into downtown Washington, D.C., parked it one block from the White House, at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street NW, and announced that his van was wired to explode. Soon, police and Secret Service agents had evacuated nearby buildings, established a perimeter, and surrounded Timmers, who was holding something he claimed was a trigger and making various demands. After several tense hours, Timmers surrendered peacefully and the city returned to normal. Nobody was hurt. Lowell's wife, Gloria (Jouppi) Timmers, was a niece of grandaunt Gert (Hannula) Jouppi.