Bomb Hoax Closes Part of Mall

An unattended box stuffed with a timer and neatly coiled wire was enough to clear shoppers from half of the Buenaventura Mall for about two hours Wednesday as police and bomb specialists carefully inspected the device.

Using a remote-controlled robot, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad determined that there were not any explosives in the foot-square cardboard box. “It was a hoax,” said Sgt. Larry White of the Ventura Police Department. “It was made to look like a bomb but it was a hoax.”

Maintenance worker Teodero Quezada found the box on a bench in the mall’s enclosed courtyard.

“It looked like a clock,” Quezada said.

He carried it to the information desk, and the woman there immediately called police and had mall security clear the area about 11:20 a.m.

Hairstylist Debbie Lilgus, who works at a salon at the mall, was dyeing a customer’s hair.

“She’s getting married tomorrow,” Lilgus said, interrupted midway through the session.

Edith and Murray Podwal had just bought shoes at Macy’s when they were ushered from the building. But the Podwals could not retrieve their car on the west side of the building, because police had cordoned off the area to safeguard passersby from possible flying glass.

“Now we can’t get our car and I’m worried about my husband,” Edith Podwal said. In his 80s, her husband is not able to stand for extended periods of time, Podwal said.

A Ventura officer went inside the cordoned-off area and drove the car to where the couple could pick it up.

The bomb squad determined that the package was a hoax by about 1:30, and the mall was reopened within the hour, letting Lilgus get back to work on her customer’s hair.