Police Explode ‘Facsimile’ Bomb in Canoga Park

Los Angeles police bomb squad officers Monday blew up what they described as a “facsimile” of a bomb outside a Canoga Park office building that houses the consulate of the small Soviet state of Estonia.

The consulate is on the second floor of the building in the 21500 block of Vanowen Street, but authorities said it was unclear whether the consulate was involved.

Police and firefighters responded to a late afternoon bomb report from an employee who works in the same building. In the shrubbery outside the building, investigators found what appeared to be two sticks of dynamite attached to a switch. They detonated the device from a distance of about 350 feet, said Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief John Adams.

“I think it was more of a nuisance,” Adams said. “I don’t know whether it’s political or not.”

A second package that also was feared to be a bomb was blown up, but was found to have been packed with dishes, a police officer said.

Estonia, a small Baltic state that was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, is now designated the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In a later incident, which police believe was unrelated, California Highway Patrol officers received a call from a tow truck driver who said he saw a possible bomb at the Sepulveda Boulevard on-ramp of the eastbound Ventura Freeway.

Bomb squad officers responded, discovered an “improvised explosive device” and detonated it, Detective Richard Kensic said.