Police Explode Bomb Under Car in Irvine

Police experts detonated a crude pipe bomb Sunday that had been placed under a rented car on a residential street.

No one was injured in the blast, which bomb disposal experts triggered unintentionally shortly after 4 p.m. when their remote-controlled robot touched the device.

“Shrapnel went through the body of the car,” said Sgt. Leo Jones of the Irvine Police Department. “Some went through the trunk. If it could penetrate the car body, it could do some serious damage to an individual. It definitely could have killed someone.”

A neighbor spotted the device as early as 9 a.m., but did not report it, Jones said. “He thought it was a pipe bomb but didn’t want to get involved.”

Jones described the device as a crude, metal pipe bomb connected by wires to a clock. There are no suspects in the incident, which occurred at the intersection of Alexandria and Athens.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever had a bomb go off before in Irvine. We’ve had people leave bombs before,” Jones said, but they were always disarmed. “I’ve been here 17 1/2 years and I can count the number of bomb incidents in one hand.”

Police received a report of the bomb about 2:15 p.m. from the woman who had rented the white Buick Skylark, Jones said. Police immediately blocked off surrounding streets, cleared them of bystanders and called in the bomb squad.

By 4 p.m., bomb disposal technicians from the Sheriff’s Department had deployed a six-wheel, remote-control robot to examine the device. As the robot extended its arm and touched the device, it exploded. Shrapnel from the blast punctured the car’s gas tank, blew out the back rear tire, perforated the body of the car and rattled windows of nearby residences.

“It sounded like a very loud Fourth of July aerial firework. When it went off, a large blue cloud of smoke encompassed the car, and the whole neighborhood jumped,” said Bill Tsumpas, 38, who viewed the explosion from his home down the street.

The woman identified by neighbors and police as the person who rented the car declined to comment on the bombing and asked that her name not be used. She had been on her way to lunch with a companion when they saw the device and ran back to her house to report it.

Jones said the woman did not know whether she was the intended target: “She’s not quite sure what’s happening. She’s pretty frightened.

“We’re real lucky that no one was injured and we have as little property damage as we do. The gas tank could have exploded, it just didn’t,” Jones said.

“A neighbor had seen the device as early as 9 a.m., (but that) person chose not to get involved although they were suspicious. It would have been a sad state if someone had been injured” as a result of that failure to inform police, Jones said.

“It’s a lesson for everyone. If you suspect something, call your local police department and let us determine if it’s fact or fiction,” he said.