Police Explode Dynamite Left in Car Trunk

Sheriff’s deputies detonated more than 200 sticks of “very unstable” crystallized dynamite that a police detective had found Tuesday afternoon in a car parked near the center of town.

Members of the hazardous devices team, deputies Don Crabtree and Harold Posey, removed the dynamite from the trunk of a 1967 Ford Mustang to a bomb transportation trailer and drove the explosives along cleared freeways to a private shooting range in Lake Elsinore.

There, the deputies blew a four-foot-deep hole in the ground when they detonated the dynamite. The explosives were of a type and strength used for trench-cutting and mining, Posey said.

‘Very Unstable’

The dynamite appeared to “be relatively old . . . and very unstable,” said John Bloom, battalion chief for the Corona Fire Department.

Corona Police Detective Les Scott found the dynamite Tuesday afternoon when he searched the red Mustang, which was parked in a recreational vehicle sales and storage lot on East Grand Boulevard adjacent to the Riverside Freeway.

The car’s owner, Patrick Poulson of Paramount, had given his consent to search the car, Scott said. Poulson, 29, was arrested and booked into Corona City Jail on suspicion of possession of explosives in a public place, which is punishable by up to six years in prison.

He is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, said Lt. Fred Biggs, Corona police watch commander.

Poulson “said he didn’t know the dynamite was there,” Scott said, “but he had used dynamite before.” Poulson’s explosives permit, issued in Northern California, had expired in 1984, Scott added, but he did not say why Poulson had once been issued a permit to use explosives.

Tip From Anaheim Police

Corona police were tipped off Monday night by Anaheim police that a car loaded with explosives had been towed from Fullerton to Corona, Anaheim Police Sgt. Fred Roush said.

The Mustang, which did not have an engine, was parked at a recreational vehicle lot where Poulson rented garage space for his own business, Tip Top Corp., Scott said. He said the business installs luggage racks on cars.

As the hazardous device team moved the explosives, entrance ramps to the eastbound Riverside Freeway and southbound Interstate 15 in Corona and the Temescal Valley were blocked off by Corona police, California Highway Patrol officers and sheriff’s deputies.

A “rolling roadblock” kept traffic already on the freeways away from the bomb transportation trailer, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Devine.