JANUARY 6--A Minnesota man is facing felony charges after police discovered that he had retrofitted a vibrator, turning the sex toy into a homemade explosive device.

According to a criminal complaint, Terry Allen Lester, 37, placed “gun powder, BB shot, and buck shot from shotgun shells” into the modified device, which had “black and red wires that connected to a trigger with a battery port,” according to a statement of probable cause filed yesterday in Waseca District Court.

Police were alerted to the black vibrator by a woman with whom Lester had been living until last week. The device was reportedly included in belongings Lester left behind in the woman’s apartment. Lester, pictured in the mug shot at right, also left behind tools, cords, cables, and the remains of a drill that was disassembled “to use the parts for the vibrator bomb.”

Lester, whose rap sheet includes domestic assault and drunk driving busts, allegedly was planning on giving the vibrator as a Christmas gift to one of three former girlfriends, with whom he had relationships that “ended badly.” The woman who contacted police said Lester told her that “when the device was inserted into the female he would pull the trigger and it would blow them up.”

Waseca Police Department officers also found two other sex toys (a pink vibrator had “Merry X-mas Bitch” written on it in black ink) among Lester’s belongings. After X-raying the black vibrator, bomb squad technicians “dismantled” the device and removed the gunpowder and projectiles.

Charged with possession of an explosive/incendiary device and making terroristic threats, Lester faces a maximum of ten years in prison if convicted of the felony raps. He is currently being held in the county jail. (3 pages)