Burbank Man Arrested in Apartment Bomb Hoax

A 19-year-old Burbank man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly placing a bogus bomb under a car that resulted in the evacuation of 40 people from their apartments for about three hours, authorities said.

Richard Spicer is accused of placing an empty 12-inch-long propane cylinder against the rear axle of a 1979 Cadillac parked in a carport at the apartment building where he lives in the 4100 block of Warner Boulevard, Sgt. Don Goldberg said.

Police received a call reporting the bomb shortly before 11 p.m. Monday from a person they now suspect was Spicer.

The Los Angeles County sheriff’s explosives team, which was called to remove the device, evacuated the building, along with three adjacent buildings.

The explosives team used a robot to take the device to a sandbagged area and explode it. Upon later examination, the deputies concluded that the bomb was a fake.

Residents were allowed to return to their apartments about three hours after they were evacuated.

Goldberg said officers observed Spicer acting strangely at the scene, taking photographs and asking questions as they investigated the incident, leading them to suspect that he had placed it under the car.

Spicer was arrested shortly after 3 a.m. and was being held on $5,000 bail on suspicion of placing a facsimile bomb. He told police that he had been despondent recently because of personal problems, Goldberg said.