Anaheim Area Evacuated After Dynamite Is Found Near Tavern

The discovery of two boxes of dynamite outside an Anaheim bar Friday afternoon led to the evacuation of nearby homes and businesses for 4 1/2 hours, before bomb squads removed the explosives to a nearby military base for disposal.

A worker and a patron in the bar said Friday night that police took more than an hour to arrive after their initial report--a claim disputed by an Anaheim police official.

The incident started about 3 p.m., police said, when they were informed of the dynamite behind the Adriatic Bar, at 735 N. Anaheim Blvd.

In Unstable Condition

Police found 25 sticks of dynamite in an alley behind the bar. Anaheim Public Information Officer Sheri Erlewine told reporters at the scene that the explosives were leaking nitroglycerin and were considered “very unstable.”

The dynamite weighed about 50 pounds and was enough, if detonated, to “take the whole block,” said one police official.

The sticks were believed to be at least 20 years old, and police said late Friday they had no idea where they might have come from.

After police arrived, about 200 people within a one-block radius of the alley were evacuated, and bomb squads from Orange and Los Angeles counties were called. It was not known whether a nursery school just two doors from the bar was in session at the time.

The dynamite was loaded onto a special truck and moved, about 7:30 p.m., to the Anaheim Stadium parking lot. Officials waited until traffic was lighter, about 8:45, to transport it to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Complaint of Slow Response

Patty Osgood, a bartender at the Adriatic, said she phoned the police twice, but about an hour passed before they responded.

After a woman came into the bar and told her about the box of explosives in the alley, Osgood said, “I decided somebody should check on it, and I called the 911 (emergency) number. They (police) said they’d be here, but there was no response. I waited 30 minutes and called the Anaheim police from the number in the phone book, and it still took them another 30 minutes to get here.”

Mike Carbonell, a customer in the bar, said that after Osgood first phoned police, he “stood watching the box for at least an hour. I had something to do, so I left. When I came back an hour later, all the police were here and they had evacuated the whole block.”

Anaheim Police Sgt. Larry Kurtz said of Carbonell’s account, however, “I doubt if that’s true at all. I don’t have any story like that.”