Rash of Bomb Scares Brings Frayed Nerves : Safety: Since Oklahoma City and Unabom crimes, officials say calls from jittery citizens about ‘suspicious packages’ have escalated. So have telephone threats from copycats.

A thermos full of Kool-Aid prompted the evacuation of 200 people from Los Angeles County government headquarters Wednesday morning.

At about the same time, a “suspicious-looking” box that turned out to be stuffed with copies of Playboy and similar magazines kept several hundred judges, lawyers and jurors waiting outside the Santa Monica courthouse.

Meanwhile, a briefcase containing a court interpreter’s electronic gear prompted up to 100 people to clear out of the Downtown federal courthouse.

Since a powerful truck bomb wrecked the federal building in Oklahoma City, and a mail bomb killed an employee at a Sacramento lobbying firm, a rash of bomb scares and threats has swept the Los Angeles area, as anonymous callers promise destruction and jittery citizens wonder about briefcases forgotten in hallways or unusually thick letters in mail rooms. A similar wave has occurred in Orange County.

“People are terrified, to be honest with you,” said Lee Taylor, chief of security at Los Angeles County offices. “The fear factor is making a normal situation sometimes into an alarming situation.”

Added Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Tony Perez in the Los Angeles federal courthouse: “This is a period when the copycats and wanna-bes come out of the woodwork.”

In the past week, the Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad has responded to at least 27 calls of suspicious looking packages at local government offices and businesses--twice the usual number of calls for such a period. No explosive devices were found, said LAPD spokesman Lt. John Dunkin.

On Wednesday, there were at least five bomb scares in Los Angeles County.

A “suspicious package” addressed to the president of computer giant Packard Bell touched off an evacuation of 300 employees at company offices in Westlake Village. The Sheriff’s Department bomb squad responded but found the package contained only a leaky computer printing cartridge, deputies said.

“It was nothing,” said Al Justice, the company’s security director. “Everybody is a little on edge.”

Hundreds of judges, prosecutors, bailiffs and others waited outside the Santa Monica courthouse while sheriff’s explosives experts examined a white box covered with American flag stickers that had been found in a parking lot.

The bomb squad eventually blew up the package, which turned out to be filled with Playboy and other magazines. The incident forced up to 1,000 shareholders of Teledyne Inc. to delay their meeting at the Civic Auditorium next door.

*

Workers on two floors of the county’s Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration building Downtown were evacuated after someone spotted a thermos bottle that had been left on a counter at the tax assessor’s office.

The Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad X-rayed the thermos, which contained Kool-Aid, Taylor said.

Up to 100 employees evacuated the U.S. District Courthouse as security officers investigated a briefcase left in an eighth-floor courtroom. The case contained only electronic equipment used by interpreters in multi-defendant cases, Perez said.

Wednesday night, 30 LAPD officers and 130 jail prisoners cleared out of the Van Nuys station for about an hour while authorities checked an unidentified metal box. An X-ray revealed that it held first aid supplies, said Sgt. Joseph Brazas. The container apparently was left by a resident who had attended a community meeting at the station, Brazas said.

Perez described federal employees as concerned but not panicky in the wake of the devastating Oklahoma City blast.

He said extra security officers have been hired at the courthouse, which since Friday also has been ringed by three-foot-high concrete barriers intended to deflect car bombs. The nearby Edward R. Roybal Federal Building is similarly surrounded.

“Especially since we put in the concrete barriers, it gives the appearance of a state of siege, but it really isn’t,” Perez said. “It’s just steps we’ve taken to enhance security.”

Taylor said anonymous callers telephoned three bomb threats to county courthouses this week, but no explosives were found. A threat was also called in Tuesday to the Beverly Hills public library, forcing its closure for the day.

LAPD spokesman Dunkin said massive publicity surrounding the Oklahoma City and Unabom incidents has heightened public awareness of the threat of terrorist attacks, causing nervous citizens to report all kinds of objects they suspect may contain explosives.

County security chief Taylor said he expects the wave of bomb reports and threats to subside as the recent bombings recede in the public’s mind.

“I don’t think people have experienced as devastating an event of Oklahoma City in quite some time,” he said. “I think all this is a direct result of what’s happened.”

Times staff writer Nancy Hill-Holtzman contributed to this story.