Tom Lundborg was a teenager in the late 1970s when he worked under the accused Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner, who was a technician for an alarm company.
At the time, Lundborg’s father was the owner of ACE Alarms, a firm that provides commercial and residential burglar alarm systems, but was disabled in a car wreck. This left a young Lundborg and a 20-year-old ‘Tony’ Warner to run the business, and they drove to various sites to do burglar bars installations and service calls.
‘I worked with Tony as his helper. I looked up at him similarly. He was a kind of hippie. Had long hair, a Magnum, PI mustache, ”Lundborg told The Daily Beast. “He was a smart man. I drove around with him all day every day – during the summer, at least for a few years. ‘
Lundborg said Warner did not like authority, liked smoking weeds and claimed he had just come out of the navy. (It is unclear if Lundborg was ever in the U.S. Army, but according to records, he was arrested in 1978 for possession of marijuana.)
They drove around and listened to 103 KDF, formerly Nashville’s main rock station, and if Warner noticed a police officer, he would break his silence to tell teenager Lundborg.
“I hate cops. They are all corrupt, ”Warner said. “Never trust a policeman.”
Lundborg said he spoke to the FBI about Warner as authorities tried to put together a motive for the Christmas Day explosion that injured eight people and destroyed several buildings. Warner, 63, was killed in the blast.
Early in the morning, a recreational vehicle registered with Warner exploded after playing a recording with a cruel warning: a bomb would go off within 15 minutes. The RV also played Petula Clark’s 1964 hit “Downtown,” a song that begins with the words, “When you’re alone and life is making you lonely / You can always go downtown.”
‘He was a little guy, the quiet type, but nice to girls … My dad would go diving with him. He was popular among the females in there, you could just see.”
A motive for the bombing remains unclear, although investigators are reportedly investigating whether Warner bought conspiracy theories about 5G technology. Warner parked his RV next to an AT&T building before the vehicle exploded.
‘It would seem that the intention was more destruction than death. It is still speculation at this stage as we continue our investigation with all our partners, “said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, on Monday.
Authorities are also investigating why Warner, who was unmarried and had no children, transferred two of his homes to Michelle Swing, a 29-year-old music manager in Los Angeles. One of the deeds revoked was filed on November 25, while the other one was in 2019.
One neighbor, Rick Laude, told the Associated Press that he and Warner talked days before the bombing, and Laude asked, “Are you going to bring Santa something good for Christmas?”
“Oh, yes, Nashville and the world will never forget me,” Warner replied.
Laude said he thought nothing was strange about their conversation and that “nothing to this man raised any red flags.”
Meanwhile, another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told a Daily Beast reporter that Warner was wandering around with a peacock last month, to carry out. “My daughter told me he was like ‘I want this peacock,'” the neighbor claims.
Warner has revealed that he has dogs, and it is unclear if they also died during the explosion of the RV.
“I was extremely shocked,” Lundborg said of Warner’s seemingly deliberate bombing. ‘You do not expect someone who normally thought to do something so abnormal. My memories of him are very far away, but those were still the memories I had. ”
‘I guess he was crazy about something. You would think he was, to do what he did, ”adds Lundborg, whose family security business is now called Symspire.
Warner was the oldest Lundborg technician, and they worked from the Lundborg family home in Antioch, Tennessee, where Warner went to high school.
“He was a little guy, the quiet type, but nice to girls,” Lundborg said. ‘My father would go diving with him. He was popular among the females in there, you could just see. He did not flirt much, but you could see that they liked him. ‘Lundborg said Warner had a girlfriend at the time.
Lundborg said Warner “betrayed” his parents and started his own alarm business, taking an ACE client or two with him. But the founder of the business, Lundborg said, because ‘he did not have the personality’ to deal with customers.
Lundborg last saw Warner in 2007, when the technician handled IT work for a Chevrolet dealer in downtown Nashville.
But recently, Warner has been handling technology for Fridrich & Clark Realty. The owner of the business, Steve Fridrich, said that he hired Warner as an independent contractor four or five years ago and that Warner repaired the firm’s computers and set up machines for new employees.
Fridrich said Warner has other customers in the area, but he does not know what their names are.
‘Tony Warner has never been an employee of our company, but sometimes came to our office to service our computers. “Earlier this month, he advised us to retire and Fridrich & Clark have not had any contact with him since,” Fridrich said in a text message.
“When Fridrich & Clark learned that Tony was a suspect in the bombing on 2nd Avenue on Christmas morning, he informed the authorities that he had provided IT services to our firm. The Tony Warner we knew was a nice person who never showed less professional behavior. ‘
– with additional reporting by Steven Hale