Bomb That Hurt Federal Worker Followed Threat

A federal office received a death threat hours before a bomb exploded in a federal employee’s truck, injuring him and his wife, it was reported Sunday.

The Department of Labor’s mine and safety office here received a threat Friday from a man who said: “You guys are all dead. Timothy McVeigh lives on,” the office district manager, Fred Hansen, told the Reporter in Vacaville on Sunday. Timothy McVeigh faces trial in the deadly bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building a year ago.

The FBI was investigating a bomb planted in the pickup truck of Gene Ainslie, an inspector at the mine office. Officials said the threat was not made specifically against Ainslie.

Ainslie and his wife, Rita, were driving home Friday when they heard a loud noise and the truck’s cab began filling with smoke, the California Highway Patrol said. The truck spun out of control and hit the center divide. Ainslie and his wife escaped the truck before it burned.

Rita Ainslie, 57, was hospitalized in serious but stable condition; her husband, 56, was in stable condition.