SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : ‘Bomb’ Found on Campus Is a Pot Pipe

At the local high school Wednesday, a bomb scare was called off when a suspected pipe bomb turned out to be a pot pipe.

About 9:30 a.m., a student found a metal object about five inches long and a half-inch wide on the athletic field, Littlerock High School Principal Jeff Foster said.

The object had a tripod base, a screw on top and a small hole in one side that appeared to be burned. “Its unusual shape and the fact that it had the burn mark made us wonder if it was an unexploded device,” Foster said.

Parents might be relieved to know that neither school officials nor the students who saw the object recognized it as a type of water pipe used in the smoking of drugs, usually marijuana.

The area was cleared and local sheriff’s deputies called. Upon arriving, the deputies sealed off the area and made sure everyone kept a safe distance until the bomb squad could get to the high desert community, more than an hour later.

But once on the scene, the bomb deputies didn’t need long to properly identify the object.

“The cops were out here for five minutes and they left,” Foster said.

Marijuana pipes are periodically confiscated from students on campus, Foster said. But he said the unusual shape and size of the pipe found on the field threw school officials off.

“We didn’t want to take the chance that it might cause injury or harm,” Foster said.

The owner of the pipe has not been determined.