Police Alarmed by Rise in Bombings : Violence: Valley youths are turning bottles into deadly devices. One dry ice and eight acid explosions have been reported since early August.

It’s the deadly prank of a new generation.

With information passed over computer networks or possibly gleaned from television, youths are transforming plastic and glass bottles into lethal explosive devices.

The trend is most alarming in the San Fernando Valley, where eight acid bombs and a dry ice bomb have exploded since early August, according to police. Law enforcement officials throughout Southern California fear more casualties--the most recent was a 5-year-old boy killed in San Bernardino last month.

“We used to have firecrackers, people hitting mailboxes with baseball bats,” said Detective Bob Nelson of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Criminal Conspiracy Section, which investigates bombings. “Now, the kids are making these bombs.

“What we’re really concerned about is the proliferation of the acid bomb and the dry ice bomb,” Nelson said. “And unlike a fuse on a firecracker, they never know when these things can go off. The public is placed in jeopardy.”

Larry Cornelison, an arson and explosives detail supervisor with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, agrees on the danger. “Most of the time it starts as a prank thing and then deteriorates into a situation that becomes quite deadly,” Cornelison said.

No one has been injured in the eight Valley acid bomb incidents since Aug. 2, and no one has been arrested. Explosions occurred in Tujunga and Sylmar and six in Canoga Park, Chatsworth and Woodland Hills.

The devices have been tossed into mailboxes, under cars, trash cans and in alleys, primarily at night. The explosions can shatter metal mailboxes as easily as residents’ nerves.

“I had friends staying in my house,” said one Woodland Hills resident who was victimized by an acid bomb Aug. 30. “At midnight, this bomb went off in my mailbox. I came home and shook for two days.”

While the acid bombs have so far cost more in sleep and property damage than injury, police fear it may be only a matter of time before someone is hurt.

“I think the parents need to be alerted to the fact that this activity is going on,” Nelson said. “It’s possible, with a little information passed along to them, they may be able to stop some of this activity.”

Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the Valley’s top law enforcement officer, put it more bluntly:

“We can try and control this all day long, but the solution is to have parents control their kids,” he said.

During the past two years, similar pranks with acid bombs have caused injuries in Ohio, Washington and Florida. Other non-injury incidents were reported last year in San Diego and Mission Viejo.

Dry ice bombs have already proved fatal. Although less frequently reported than incidents with acid bombs, they have been the cause of the two deaths and the several injuries that police have linked to acid or dry ice explosives.

On Aug. 20, 5-year-old Sivutha Chhoeung of San Bernardino was killed as a bottle he was playing with exploded, hurling a chunk of glass into his jugular vein. Authorities had no reason to suspect the boy knew the explosive’s potential.

“A little kid like that just doesn’t know,” said Detective James Voss of the San Bernardino Police Department. “It was just an unfortunate situation.”

A similar tragedy was narrowly avoided Aug. 25 in Van Nuys, when a dry ice bomb built by two juveniles exploded prematurely in the hands of an 8-year-old boy in the 14300 block of Blythe Street.

The flying glass from the 16-ounce bottle slashed the boy across the hands and chest, Nelson said. The two other youths, age 13 and 14, were arrested, Nelson said. Their case is pending.

The only other recorded death from a dry ice bomb was that of Seong Ha Rhee, 58, who was killed Nov. 15, 1992, by a bomb rolled into his Watts grocery store by youths as a prank.

The bloody crime scene was so bizarre that police told the victim’s daughter, Christie E. Suh, that they initially suspected that her father had been stabbed to death in a hold-up attempt.

Later, police learned the truth: that Rhee bled to death when a soda bottle exploded and sliced his neck.

“I thought he was killed by a robber with a knife or a gun,” said Suh, who described her father as a popular merchant in the neighborhood. “And I find out it was a piece of glass. I was shocked. It was a surprise that people can kill somebody by playing.”

Two boys, ages 15 and 14, were convicted of manslaughter. Fred Kubik, deputy in charge of the Juvenile Justice Center in South-Central Los Angeles, said the case against the third youth was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Injuries, police say, are happening at an alarming rate. One case involved a 16-year-old student who was hurt April 23 when he discovered a dry ice bomb at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles.

Authorities warn that anyone who encounters a suspected dry ice or acid bomb should stay at least 300 feet away, and contact authorities immediately.

As disturbing as these devices are, the technology required to put them together is readily accessible, according to police.

“I’ve had juveniles responsible for bombings where they have told us they built the bombs with information passed over these computer networks,” said Deputy Jim Gonzales, with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s arson and explosives detail. Others claim to have learned how from a television show, Nelson said.

Merely possessing a dry ice or acid bomb is a felony under a new law that went into effect at the start of this year.

Suh would like to see a ban on selling dry ice to youngsters under 18, an idea Kroeker said lawmakers should examine. Even some youths agree there should be limits, like Craig Bergmann, who has been both a victim and seller of dry ice.

“I blew myself up,” said Bergmann, 18, a victim of a dry ice bomb that exploded in March, 1992, while he was “screwing around” with friends. “I still can’t move some of my fingers. My tendons in my hand were cut. It was like a quarter of an inch from my jugular vein. My whole face was shattered.”

“Ever since it happened to me, we’ve been really cautious about who we sell it to,” Bergmann said. “We’ve even thought if there was a law, we would follow it. I don’t do anything with dry ice now.”