PAYETTE, Idaho - Catherine Carlson, 53, was arrested Sunday after firefighters responding to a report of a fire found pipes made to look like bombs on the porch of her trailer home in Payette, with a note warning of a booby-trap, authorities said.

About 50 homes were evacuated in the southwestern Idaho city when another call came in, reporting a car fire at a storage unit on U.S. Highway 95. The vehicle had been doused in gasoline.

Another call alerted police to a naked woman running down the highway, carrying what also appeared to be a pipe bomb. Police later learned the pipe contained legal documents, not explosives.

Carlson, a transgender woman who was at odds with police over how they acknowledged her gender identity in a 2007 traffic citation, after they included her given name, Daniel Carlson, on some documents. The name Daniel Carlson is listed as an "aka" on the citation records.

  "She's had some issues with the Payette County jail regarding her sexual orientation," Payette Police Chief Mark Clark told KIVI-TV. "During questioning, Carlson said she is trying to bring attention to her plight."

Carlson legally changed her name to Catherine Carlson more than three decades ago, before she had a sex change operation in 1980. Carlson was being held in Payette County jail on suspicion of use of weapons of mass destruction, arson and indecent exposure. It could not be immediately determined if she had a lawyer.

Source: The Associated Press