Store Is Evacuated but Bomb Threat Fizzles

A foil-wrapped package with a switch and battery taped to it looked like a bomb when it was found in a restroom at the Carson Mall on Thursday afternoon. But it proved to contain two cans of WD-40, a commonly used spray lubricant, when examined by explosives experts from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Between 75 and 100 employees and customers of the mall’s J.C. Penney store were evacuated after an unidentified man telephoned the store at 12:15 p.m. and said a bomb had been placed in a store restroom. The device was found in a first-floor men’s room after a 15-minute search by sheriff’s deputies and mall security officers.