Phony Bomb Found After Call to S

An unidentified caller issued a bomb threat to a savings and loan branch Wednesday morning, prompting an extensive search that turned up a phony pipe bomb, authorities said.

Brea police, who provide service to Yorba Linda, said Pomona First Federal Savings & Loan got a call at 9:08 a.m. from someone who said a bomb at the S&L; would explode unless employees placed cash in a back parking lot.

Police who searched the building at 19750 Yorba Linda Blvd. and the surrounding area for more than an hour found no device.

But at 11:52 a.m. an employee reported finding what looked like a pipe bomb in a trash can near the S&L;, Brea Police Sgt. Reuben Hernandez said.

After the office was evacuated and traffic was diverted, the Sheriff’s Department bomb unit pulled a round cylinder with a timing device from the trash bin. The pipe contained only clay, Police Lt. Bill Lentini said.

It was the third fake bomb reported in the county since Friday, when a man left a backpack on a Brea bank counter and said in a demand note that it contained a bomb. He escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash, authorities said.

On Monday, in what is believed to be an unrelated incident, a man entered an Anaheim thrift with a phony device supposed to be a bomb and robbed the branch of an undisclosed amount of money, according to the FBI.