Talk about nightmares: The owner of a house that he’d been renting out had a close call recently when an inspection revealed that the place had been rigged to blow up when a light switch was flipped. Because that kind of intricate wiring isn’t a mistake, police are now investigating.

Police in Massachusetts are now looking for the people who were renting the house, reports NBC News.

The homeowner was conducing a pre-sale inspection on the home with his attorney and an electrical inspector, when the electrician discovered the rigged light switch, Milton Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. said Tuesday.

The chief said the mechanism was an intricate set-up — it took police bomb specialists working for several hours in the house before it was declared disarmed and safe.

“It took some work to put it in there,” Wells said, noting that the explosive substance was “secreted inside the house” and connected to a particular light switch through an intricate network of wires snaking through several rooms.

“We believe the intention was that if someone had flipped the light switch on where it ended, the device would have exploded,” he said.

Police were called to the house last week on a vandalism complaint, while it was occupied by renters. At that time, officers found the house’s drains plugged with cement.

Both the Boston and Milton police are now looking for the renters as persons of interest in the investigation.

“I have never seen anything like this,” said Wells, adding that whoever rigged this wasn’t trying to provide a fun fireworks show for the enjoyment of all involved. Instead, those behind the bomb “definitely had malicious intent in what they did.”

Renters Sought After Massachusetts House Rigged to Explode [NBC News]

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