Bogus Time Bombs Leave Police Fuming : Novelty clocks wired to fake dynamite sticks are triggering evacuations and bomb-squad responses.

Northridge apartment manager Pat McCoy said she froze with fear last week when she entered an apartment to check a water leak and found a digital clock with seven red sticks labeled “dynamite” attached.

“I called my husband Don, and he said, ‘I don’t know what it is, but you better get the hell out of there,’ ” McCoy said.

Minutes later, Los Angeles police officers arrived at the development in the 9800 block of Zelzah Avenue, took one look at the device and called the LAPD bomb squad, she said. Fourteen officers cordoned off the street, evacuated the 250 tenants of the development and ordered neighbors to stay away from their windows.

Ninety minutes later, police emerged with the news that the “bomb” was a phony. The ominous red sticks were hollow tubes of cardboard.

Although police confiscated the clock, the owner was not arrested because there is no law against such bogus bombs, said Lt. Frank Malen. But he and other officers say there ought to be.

“We’ve had several of these,” Malen said. “They’re starting to drive us crazy.”

The Northridge incident came after half a dozen similar incidents throughout Los Angeles in the past year, including another in the San Fernando Valley, said Lt. Jim Finn, who heads the LAPD bomb squad. As a result, the LAPD is discussing whether to propose city or state legislation to ban possession and sale of the bogus bombs, said LAPD spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also is monitoring the problem, a spokesman said.

“It causes a lot of consternation, because you don’t know whether these things are real or not,” Cooke said.

The “time bomb clocks” are sold at novelty stores and swap meets and through mail-order advertisements and “are very real-looking,” according to police.

“Most of the time the owners think they’re cute and a good conversation piece,” said Finn.

“It’s an overwhelming problem for law enforcement,” Cooke said. “Look at what we have to go through to make certain it’s defused. It requires hours and hours of manpower and evacuation procedures and diversion of traffic.”

Police have to assume all bomb-related calls are the real thing, Finn said, and they deploy bomb experts, uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives on all such calls. Other emergency personnel are also mobilized, including firefighters, paramedics and rescue personnel.

Finn estimates that each false alarm caused by the toy bombs costs taxpayers about $20,000. He said he also worries about accidents that may occur if residents panic.

“What if a little old lady falls down the stairs and kills herself because she’s trying to get away from a bomb, or if an officer on his way to the scene in a hurry gets into an accident?”

Finn said he is also concerned that, if phony bombs can be made to look real, then real bombs can be make to look like toys.

“A person can make a real bomb and make it look phony to lull us into a false sense of security,” Finn said. “That’s what makes these things so dangerous.”

The toy bombs cost from $20 to $50, Finn said, depending on the size and style. Most look like the one found in Northridge, with three to eight red cardboard sticks about the size of road flares, labeled “dynamite,” attached to a small digital clock. The device is a foot to 18 inches wide and six to seven inches high, Finn said.

Although bomb squad officers keep one of the fake bombs for training, they would not allow the device to be photographed, fearing that any publicity might spread its use.

Advertised in Magazine

An advertisement in the November, 1986, issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine offered a “time bomb clock” for sale. The ad read: “Danger Be Careful!!! Time Bomb Clock. . . . Our industrial designers and explosives consultant have designed a clock so close to the real thing, it guarantees to pop a few eyes.”

The ad also states that the three 8 1/2-by-1-inch sticks have imprinted on them in block letters: “Danger: High Explosive” and “Dynamite.”

The alarm clock, billed in the ad as “the gift of the ‘80s,” sells for $20, plus $2 postage, and is manufactured by a company in Santa Clara.

Attempts to reach the manufacturer were unsuccessful.

The resident whose clock prompted the scare in Northridge was not identified and could not be reached for comment, but other residents said the complex has calmed down since the evacuation.

McCoy said several residents had told her it was a “heck of a way to have a tenants meeting.”