2 Arrested in Bombings; Police Seek Third Suspect

Two teenagers were arrested in a wealthy Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood Tuesday morning in connection with a series of pipe bomb blasts over the past six weeks that have destroyed four mailboxes, a guard shack and a car on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Sheriff’s deputies are seeking one more adult connected to the blasts, said Det. Don Powell of the sheriff’s arson and explosives unit.

Aaron Thomas, 19, and a 17-year-old whose name was not released were taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies and booked at the Lomita sheriff’s station for manufacturing, possessing and detonating destructive devices.

Thomas was being held on $500,000 bail, Powell said. He will be arraigned today at the South Bay Municipal Court in Torrance. The juvenile is being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Detention Facility in Downey and will be held pending a hearing in Juvenile Court.

After the arrests, sheriff’s deputies and the Los Angeles County Fire Department evacuated about half a dozen homes on Crownview Drive to search for explosives in the house where Thomas lived with his parents.

Sheriff’s investigators spent the day combing through the Thomas residence and found items for making explosive devices, such as triggers and gunpowder, Powell said. They also found an assembled explosive device.