One person suggested meteors.
Another, a propane-propelled cannon. Gunshots. One man said the mysterious flash of light and gut-rattling bang could only be the product of time-travel experiments.
But Tuesday, Baltimore County police said the phenomenon wrenching Pikesville residents from their sleep ? and, concededly, baffling them for months ? was a local man setting off illegal fireworks from his fourth-floor condominium.
Frederick Lee Mackler, 59, was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, possession of fireworks without a permit, possession of a concealed deadly weapon and several drug violations.
“It wasn?t directed at anyone,” said Cpl. Mike Hill, a Baltimore police spokesman. “He just happened to have pyrotechnics and, early in the morning, he would set them off.”
Mackler told police he wanted to annoy his neighbors, Hill said.
The arrest ends an investigation that started in September 2007, but residents near Mackler?s home on the 8000 block of Brynmor Court said the deafening bang and blinding flash have been annoying them for as long as three years.
Barbara Friedman, president of the neighborhood community association, praised police for taking their complaints seriously, installing surveillance cameras that eventually pinpointed the blasts.
“The quality of life has been very much disturbed for hundreds of homes,” Friedman said. “It?s a very strange story.”
The mystery, first reported by WJZ-13, prompted online exchanges from residents across the state who traded theories on the source. Paul Scheerer, a science-fiction fan from Overlea, suggested time-travel experiments gone awry.
“We believe time travel will eventually be possible,” Scheerer said Tuesday. “I always thought this could possibly be someone trying to beam something back through time and we are just seeing the end result.”
Police said they searched Mackler?s condominium Monday night and seized pyrotechnics, illegal narcotics and firearms. The amount of drugs was enough for police to charge Mackler with drug distribution, Hill said.
Mackler, who according to court records received probation for a 1992 battery charge, is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on a $1 million bail.
A bail review is scheduled for Wednesday.
Examiner staff writer Luke Broadwater contributed to this report.
