Thieves Get Store Safe, but Leave Trail to Hiding Place

A supermarket safe heisted by thieves in a stolen tow truck, who planted three bombs in this Northern California resort town as a diversionary tactic, was recovered battered but unopened Monday, police said.

“The boom on the tow truck bent” and the safe bumped and gouged the roadway during the Sunday night caper, leaving a trail in the asphalt to a storage shed near the Clear Lake Airport, police Lt. Bob Chalk reported. “We recovered the safe at 7:30 a.m. in a storage unit. It was still on the truck, unopened.”

Six hours later, police discovered two additional unexploded bombs behind a drug store about two blocks from the theft. The 8-inch by 1-inch cylinders had been set to detonate but failed to go off, Chalk said.

A third bomb was thrown through a bank window and exploded, distracting police during the raid on the supermarket safe.

“They are commercially made, possibly for the military,” Chalk said of the bombs. Army explosives experts from San Francisco were to examine the devices to determine their origin, he said.

The thieves threw the third bomb through the window of a Bank of America branch to cover up the Sunday night burglary from Foods Etc. supermarket. The bank sustained moderate damage, Chalk said.

Joyce Spanos, a bank spokeswoman, said the bomb landed in a customer service area.

“It blew out the window in the middle of the bank, and there’s a lot of glass around,” Spanos said.

Police said that about the same time, a tow truck stolen from a body and fender shop backed into the front door of Foods Etc. and the driver used a crowbar to break the glass.

He then attached a tow chain to the safe and pulled it onto the back of the truck, police said. When he drove away the safe slipped partly off the truck, creating the trail that led authorities to the shed.