WESTMINSTER : ‘Tick’ Spurs Fear of Bomb at School

A loud, ticking noise coming from a locker at Westminster High School led to the evacuation of 2,400 students Monday morning while a bomb squad was called in to investigate, but the culprit turned out to be a malfunctioning portable tape recorder, officials said.

Classes were delayed for two hours, resuming about 11 a.m.

The ticking noise was first heard by a security guard around 6 a.m. and was traced to one of 250 metal lockers built into the wall in the north wing of the school, located at 14325 Golden West Ave., Police Sgt. Rick McKinney said.

Officers called to the scene around 7 a.m. also heard the noise and decided shortly before 9 a.m. to evacuate the school. They called in the Orange County Sheriff’s Deapartment’s Hazardous Devices Squad to cut the locks on the locker and a few others near it, McKinney said.

“During the time we were setting up to attack this thing, you could hear this horrible ticking noise that went on for more than an hour and a half,” McKinney said. “It was an enormous ‘tick, tick, tick’ that was probably echoing off the metal locker.”

Westminster High School Principal Bonnie Maspero said a book in the locker apparently fell and activated the Walkman-style tape recorder, causing it to sound like a ticking clock.

“You could hear it from several feet away from the locker,” Maspero said, adding that the locker was near a hall containing 20 classrooms, some of them science labs that contained potentially explosive chemicals. “The police said they didn’t want to touch it and decided to call in the bomb squad. Obviously, when you have a concern, you’re going to protect the student body.”

Students were evacuated onto the football field and then teachers were informed of the bomb investigation, Maspero said. The school’s electricity and gas were shut off during the two-hour investigation.

Maspero said that the unidentified student’s tape recorder was working fine afterward. “The batteries are still good,” she added.