The Fight Against Crime: Notes From the Front : Bomb Threat Proves to Be False--Again

The scene Tuesday was all too familiar. A dozen or so squad cars blocking off a major thoroughfare, while frightened residents watch from behind yellow tape as helmeted officers scurry around a mysterious package.

And like most times, the only thing that went boom behind a Wilshire State Bank branch on Sherman Way in Reseda was the device police used to blow apart a prankster’s idea of a fake bomb.

Shoppers fled a Sav-on store on Etiwanda Street and houses on Sherman Way behind the bank, and traffic for blocks in either direction was rerouted for about an hour during Tuesday’s scare, which began when a bank employee saw a timing device attached to cylinders that looked like dynamite, said Los Angeles Police Capt. Robert Gale.

“It looked very, very real,” said Gale. “It looked too similar to an actual device to handle it.”

Maybe Keanu Reeves can crawl under a speeding bus and, brow beaded with sweat, attempt to defuse a complicated bomb.

Back on planet Los Angeles, though, the best way to get rid of a bomb seems to be to fire a projectile at it--picking up the pieces later.

That’s exactly what transpired Tuesday, when officers fired at the phony bomb, found beside a retaining wall in a rear parking lot of the bank branch. That accounted for the small percussion and puff of smoke spectators heard and saw Tuesday.

Tuesday’s false alarm marked the seventh time shopping centers were emptied recently due to bomb threats or suspicious-looking devices. No bombs turned up in any of them, but the culprits apparently accomplished what they wanted--rattling the public and drawing attention to themselves.

“Look at all the commerce we shut down,” said Gale. “The bank was full. We shut down a whole bunch of businesses.”

The pranksters also cost retailers thousands of dollars in lost sales. A bomb scare closed the Glendale Galleria for seven hours during the height of the holiday shopping season. In that incident, a shopper spotted a suspicious package in a men’s restroom. Police later received a threatening call, and uncovered two more packages in two other restrooms. Each package was labeled “bomb” and turned out be sacks of flour.

Also hit with scares this month were the Westside Pavilion and Beverly Center in Los Angeles, Santa Anita Fashion Park in Arcadia and the Brea Mall in Orange County.

Deputy Scott Miller of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in Santa Clarita knows the scenario well. “We’ve never had a call of a bomb threat where we actually had a bomb,” said Miller.

Most often, such threats come from disgruntled employees looking to disrupt business, he said. Usually, deputies respond, search the building, and only call in the experts if they find anything unusual.

When someone reports a suspicious-looking device, the bomb experts often have to be called to take a look, he said.

In the Antelope Valley, it’s another story. Perhaps because the rural atmosphere allows pyrotechnic aficionados to get away with setting off explosives, authorities frequently find the real McCoy, said Sgt. Bob Denham of the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station.

Denham’s officers get many calls, “and frequently they find explosive devices--from old military weapons to homemade bombs.”

“We treat every (suspicious) item as if it was an explosive device,” he said.

Experts say it is difficult to profile the typical bomber. As the recent firebombing of a New York City subway train may show, a seemingly mild-mannered suburbanite could harbor the destructive tendencies of a bomber. Authorities say an unemployed man accidentally exploded a homemade bomb that was to be part of a blackmail scheme, injuring himself and dozens of passengers.

As for bomb pranksters, most bear grudges or simply like to see spectacles, experts say.

“I think whoever is doing it likes to see the evacuations,” LAPD bomb squad Lt. Steven Allen said of the recent mall incidents.

Times staff writer Jeannette Regalado contributed to this story.