Warning Issued on Explosive Cartridges

Five stolen and highly explosive cartridges, believed to be used on the space shuttle, have been discovered in the Santa Clarita Valley where a resident was injured when one of the devices blew up, the Sheriff’s Department said Monday.

Santa Clarita residents were warned to call the Sheriff’s Department if they see any more of the cartridges, which are 7-inch-long, 3/4-inch-diameter cylinders with red plastic caps on each end.

“These things look harmless but any kind of prodding or pressure could set them,” said Deputy Bill Linnemeyer. “They should be considered extremely dangerous.”

In 1987, 42 of the devices, identified as “thruster cartridges,” were reported stolen from a now-closed Canyon County testing facility that was operated by Hi-Shear Technology Corp., officials said.

“They are used on the space shuttle to jettison the empty fuel tanks,” Linnemeyer said. “We feel that there are more of them out there.”

Officials launched an investigation to identify the objects Feb. 3 after a 16-year-old boy was slightly burned on his chest and arms when the cartridge exploded as he tried to dismantle it in his garage.

“It was so strange looking. I put it on a vise and tried to scrape the seal with a nail,” said Aaron Myers, the injured boy. “All of sudden there was this bright flash and it blew up and blew me across the garage.”

Myers received minor burns he said caused blisters on his body. He was treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia.

Aaron’s brother Adam, 18, said he was riding his bicycle on a hillside south of Bouquet Canyon Park when he saw the cartridge in the brush.

“It looked like some strange kind of bolt,” he said. “I had no idea what it was. I just put it in my pocket and took it home to show my brother.”

“We just thought we would kind of mess with it and figure out what it was,” Adam Myers said. “I guess it was a stupid thing to do.”

Authorities investigating the explosion linked the device to a theft from the nearby firm almost three years ago. Because 42 of the cartridges were stolen from the company, deputies launched a door-to-door search in the neighborhood where the Myerses live.

Four cartridges were found in one home and another was found in the field near where Adam Myers found a cartridge. No arrests were made and deputies said the devices found at the home had been found in the same field.

The devices were taken to a remote part of the Peter Pitchess Honor Ranch in northern Los Angeles County for detonation.

A spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Monday that he could not confirm whether the cartridges described by local authorities were indeed destined for a space shuttle. But he said that similar explosive bolts are attached to the shuttle’s fuel tanks to jettison the tanks about two minutes after liftoff.

Rick Rodriguez, a spokesman for Hi-Shear Technology, confirmed that the cartridges had been stolen from a double-locked facility. He said that the firm was involved in subcontract work for the shuttle program.