A Bensalem Township man was being held on 10 percent of $8 million bail as of Friday after being charged with aggravated assault, risking a catastrophe, and other offenses.
Falls Township officers were dispatched Wednesday around 8:24 a.m. to Liberty Drive for a woman who said Edward Salvatore Scanio, 28, took her vehicle overnight. She confronted him and he broke her windshield and he before fleeing on foot, according to court papers.
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Police said dispatchers reported Scanio was wanted on a county warrant.
Five township officers responded and went to work handling the situation.
Using Scanio’s iPhone’s locator app, the woman was able to relay his location to officers at the scene, police said.
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Falls Township and Middletown Township officers searched for Scanio in the nearby Twin Oaks neighborhood. They learned the iPhone was pinging back a location in the Woodbourne Plaza shopping center in Middletown Township, police said.
Officers found Scanio behind the shopping center hiding between cargo containers, police said.
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When Falls Township and Middletown Township cops arrested Scanio, they discovered a “red-colored cylinder tube” that had a fuse attached to it in the 28-year-old man’s pocket, police said.
Members of the Philadelphia Police Department’s bomb squad examined the cylinder with a fuse and reported it was an M-type improvised explosive device, police said.
The woman relayed to officers that hours before the incident, she noticed the key fob for her Acura sedan was missing and Scanio asked to use it but he was rejected. When the woman confronted Scanio, he laughed and ran outside to the area of the vehicle. The two kept arguing about the key fob and vehicle via text message. One message involved Scanio threatening to set of “M-80s” around the woman’s home to trigger the Acura’s alarm system, police said.
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Around 4 a.m., the woman realized her vehicle was missing, and she started using the iPhone she gifted him to track his location, police said.
Just before 8 a.m., the woman tracked the iPhone to Liberty Drive and found Scanio sleeping in the Acura. She opened the door and attempted to grab the key fob, police said.
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Scanio, according to the woman’s account to officers, held the cylinder with the fuse and sparked a lighter. He allegedly held held the flame near the fuse, which alarmed the woman.
Scanio and the woman argued and he grabbed a golf club trainer. He then stuck the rear windshield of the Acura, police said.
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At that point, he fled and police were called, according to court papers.
In addition to aggravated assault and risking a catastrophe, Scanio was charged with weapons of mass destruction, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, and prohibited offensive weapons. District Judge Jan Vislosky set the high bail at preliminary arraignment.
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Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
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