GILBERT, AZ — Gilbert police tell ABC15 they are investigating a third incident involving fireworks being thrown at buildings. A Valley family near Greenfield and Guadalupe roads caught video of the most recent incident on November 25.
This comes after two other incidents from November 2023 and July 2024 that ABC15 has reported on.
"I actually sleep with earbuds in, and all of a sudden I hear this huge boom that woke me up," said Tami Alvey.
An early bedtime for the Alvey family was interrupted by a loud explosion just days before Thanksgiving.
"At first when I was in bed, I thought it was a massive car wreck," said Spencer Alvey. "It was just super loud, you could feel the percussion through the door."
"All of our kids woke up," said Tami. "They were freaking out did you hear that."
The family said their backyard, which is currently under construction, was filled with smoke that night.
"I could see evidence where the ground was stirred up, and there was a pretty big divot in the ground," said Spencer.
The pair looked at their surveillance cameras and found a video showing something moving through the air, a loud boom, and then sparks flying.
"You can hear the launch, and then three or four seconds later it explodes," said Spencer showing ABC15 their backyard.
The couple told ABC15 they called police and were directed to their non-emergency line. The family waited about an hour, before eventually asking if officers could come the next day.
"They stopped by twice that same day," said Spencer.
"They did an investigation, just looked in the yard took the pieces and remnants of what exploded," said Tami.
Gilbert police confirmed they did respond to a home in the area for a fireworks call. Their statement said officers canvassed the business plaza behind the home hoping to find footage showing who was responsible.
"A business plaza canvassed directly behind the home has not produced additional footage of the incident at this time to indicate who the involved individual(s) may be or any potential connections to other cases."
This comes after ABC15 reported on two other incidents in Gilbert. In November, police were investigating if there were any connections between an incident that was reported in November of 2023 and a barn fire that sparked in July of this summer.
Two teens were ultimately arrested for the barn fire, and one was sentenced last month. The other's trial is set to begin this Friday.
All three situations are within less than five miles of each other.
"The only reason it didn't cause damage, or explode, or blow up, or make a fire is because we're in construction right now and our backyard is pretty much pure dirt," said Tami.
The Alveys do know the family whose barn was destroyed. The family has posted on NextDoor and hopes someone saw something that could help with their case.
"The biggest thing right now is accountability," said Spencer.
Police said if anyone knows anything they can report it by calling 480-503-6500 or at glbrt.is/GPDSubmitATip.
