Family Moving Into House Finds Bomb in Garage

Three homes in a middle-class neighborhood were evacuated Saturday after a family moving into a house discovered a homemade pipe bomb in the garage, police said.

After the family reported the discovery to police, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s hazardous-devices squad “took a look at it and said the pipe bomb was real. It was designed to be detonated,” said Sgt. Matt Stoner of the La Habra Police Department.

Stoner said the single-family house where the bomb was discovered and homes on each side of it were evacuated while a member of the squad dismantled the bomb.

“There will be an investigation how it got there (in the garage),” Stoner said. “It was a fairly small device but if somebody picked it up, he could have been seriously hurt.”

Stoner said the pipe bomb was found on a shelf next to a “military simulator” that produces a bright, disorienting light similar to an explosion and is used for military training.