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St. Francis Council Member Cited For Fake Police Report

ST. FRANCIS, Minn. (WCCO) – A 78-year-old member of the St. Francis City Council was cited Thursday by the Anoka County Sheriff's Office for filing a false police report.

Leroy Theodore Shaffer was issued a misdemeanor citation and has an Aug. 23 date set at the Anoka County Courthouse.

The citation stems from an incident that occurred at about 5:30 p.m. on July 1. Shaffer called St. Francis Police to report that he had received a suspicious package in the mail. When authorities arrived, Shaffer showed them a package with a postmark from Chicago, Ill. It was still in his mailbox and had not been removed.

Shaffer told the officer he thought it was a bomb. When asked why he would think it was, Shaffer said "he was in politics and has lots of enemies."

Shaffer wanted the box opened, and the officer refused to do so if there was any chance that the package had a harmful device inside. Shaffer then grabbed the package and opened it, and inside it appeared to be shredded paper and a hand grenade.

Shaffer then told the officer the hand grenade was a "dud" and showed the officer a hole drilled in the bottom of it. There was also a note that said, "The next one will be real."

Shaffer later admitted to police that he sent himself the package after driving to Chicago and mailing from post office there. He said he did it for sympathy.

"There's a lot of people out there that want to kill me, that's why I sent it to myself."

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