Source: US FBI
Camden, N.J. – A Pennsylvania man was charged with unlawfully possessing and transporting an explosive device with intent to intimidate with a detonation that resulted in significant damage to a vehicle, personal property, and adjacent residential homes in Burlington County, New Jersey, Acting U.S. Attorney and Special Attorney Alina Habba announced today.
Michael Patrick Takacs, Jr., 43, of Warminster, Pennsylvania, is charged by complaint with one count of transporting in interstate commerce an explosive with knowledge and intent that it would intimidate an individual and damage and destroy a building, vehicle, and real personal property; one count of unlawfully transporting explosive materials; and two counts of unlawful possession of an explosive device. Takacs had an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Skahill in Camden federal court on August 7, 2025, and was ordered detained.
“Disgruntled individuals who seek retaliation in such dangerous ways – ways that could have seriously injured not only the victim, but others in the community, cannot be tolerated. We will continue to support and collaborate with our law enforcement partners, who acted swiftly, yet methodically, in this matter. Violent actors will be brought to justice.”
– Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba
“We learned a bomb was placed under a person’s vehicle and it exploded before dawn on a Saturday in Delran, NJ. Our agents, intelligence analysts, bomb technicians, evidence response team, and task force officers with state and local police agencies rushed to the scene and immediately began searching for a suspect. We worked around the clock and developed evidence in just days to allege Takacs built the bomb and took very specific steps to avoid detection. Our most important mission in these types of investigations is to protect the public from injury or death by preventing additional attacks. The people of New Jersey do not always get to see the swift and incredible work done by the FBI and our law enforcement partners, but this case illustrates what we do and the way we do it is vital to the communities we serve,” Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy said.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On or about July 26, 2025, at approximately 2:42 a.m., an explosive device detonated in the vicinity of a silver Ford Explorer owned by Victim-1 and parked in Victim-1’s driveway located in Delran, New Jersey. The explosion caused a debris field extending out approximately 100 feet in diameter, with various nails and bolts lodged in both the body of the Ford Explorer and in adjacent residential homes.
Approximately two minutes prior to the explosion, surveillance video reviewed by law enforcement showed a dark-colored SUV, later identified as a Jeep Renegade, park directly across the street from Victim-1’s residence and an individual exit the front driver’s side door of the SUV carrying a black object. The individual approached the vicinity of the driver’s side door of Victim-1’s Ford Explorer and then quickly left the vicinity of the Ford Explorer empty handed, returning to the SUV and departing the area.
Shortly thereafter, surveillance video footage showed what appeared to be the same dark-colored Jeep Renegade pass Victim-1’s residence at a high rate of speed, followed immediately by a large explosion that engulfed the vicinity of the Ford Explorer in or near Victim-1’s driveway. Law enforcement believes that the individual driving the Jeep Renegade remotely detonated an explosive device that he had placed near the Ford Explorer while passing Victim-1’s residence.
Victim-1 previously worked with Takacs and was one of his supervisors. In or around May 2025, Takacs was terminated from his position at his place of employment.
Law enforcement later observed a dark-colored Jeep Renegade – the same make and model of the SUV seen on surveillance footage outside of Victim-1’s residence – parked in the vicinity of Takac’s residential driveway in Warminster, Pennsylvania. Additionally, law enforcement learned that Takacs had purchased detonators consistent with the detonator found on the scene of the explosion from an online website just weeks before the event.
Takacs had taken a screenshot, on or about June 4, 2025, of an online map depicting Victim-1’s residence and had conversations with another individual about purchasing a license plate flipper (a device that assists drivers in obscuring or concealing license plates at the press of a button). Takacs did not hold the necessary permits, licenses, or registrations to make or transport explosives.
Counts 1 and 2 of the Complaint each carry a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, and a maximum fine of $250,000. Counts 3 and 4 of the complaint each carry a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, and a maximum fine of $10,000.
Acting U.S. Attorney and Special Attorney Habba credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy in Newark and Special Agent in Charge Wayne A. Jacobs in Philadelphia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, under the direction of David Metcalf, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, under the direction of Director Laurie R. Doran, New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of LaChia L. Bradshaw, the Delran (NJ) Township Police Department, under the direction of Acting Chief Matthew J. Gasper, the Bucks County (PA) Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Fred Haran, and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, under the direction of District Attorney Jennifer M. Schorn.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vincent D. Romano and Casey S. Smith of the Office’s National Security Unit in Newark, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division.
The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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Defense counsel: Thomas Young, Assistant Federal Public Defender