Hardware purchases and location data: How the FBI says it made an arrest in the DC pipe bomb case, nearly five years later

(CNN) — The quiet calm of a weekday morning in a Woodbridge, Virginia, neighborhood was suddenly interrupted Thursday by a loud siren, two Humvee-style vehicles and a group of SWAT-like figures in camouflage, rifles trained on a house.

“This is the FBI. We have a federal search warrant,” the voice coming over a loudspeaker said, according to a neighbor. “Come out of the house with your hands up.”

The ensuing arrest of a 30-year-old recluse who lived with his parents resolves, Justice Department officials said, a mystery that had vexed investigators across three presidential administrations: Who placed two pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC, on the eve of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021?

Over nearly five years, the inv