Newport Neighborhood Evacuated in Dynamite Scare

NEWPORT BEACH — It was a calm, summerlike day in the residential area of Newport Island and Balboa Coves--until the bomb squad arrived to inspect a box labeled “dynamite.”

Within minutes, the entire neighborhood was evacuated. Police helicopters circled the area around 36th Street and Finley Avenue.

The Orange County sheriff’s bomb squad inspected the potentially dangerous box, containing what officers thought was 25 pounds of dynamite sticks.

Instead, officers said they found “plumber’s dynamite,” a caustic material used by plumbers to clean clogged pipes.

William Huscroft, 75, who found the box in an alley, thought he was being a responsible citizen by picking it up and storing the case in his brick home on the waterfront. He then called police to inspect it.

“ ‘What if a car hit it and it exploded?’ ” he said he asked himself.

Huscroft, a five-year resident of the Newport neighborhood, said he never meant to cause such a ruckus.

“My intention was to get somebody over here to evaluate it. But this is embarrassing as hell is what this is.”