Bomb Threat Probe Yields Drug Arrest

A San Clemente man was arrested Saturday after allegedly phoning a bomb threat to a Sav-On drug store and then going there, only to have his voice recognized by the manager who took the call, officials said.

Ethan Steinman, 21, was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and making a bomb threat after sheriff’s deputies investigating the bomb threat found nearly 50 mature plants at his home.

The store manager identified Steinman’s voice when he heard Steinman talking with customers in the store on Calle de Industrias in San Clemente 30 minutes after receiving the threat, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Hector Rivera.

“It must have been a pretty distinctive voice, or it was just very fresh in the [manager’s] mind because he recognized it immediately,” Rivera said.

Judy Decker, a spokeswoman for Sav-On stores, said the call came in just before the 9 p.m. closing time.

It was not clear why Steinman went to the store, and Rivera declined to say where the threatening call originated.

The manager, whose name was not released, followed Steinman outside and jotted down his license plate number, which he gave to sheriff’s deputies, Rivera said.

Officials went to Steinman’s house, where they found 49 mature marijuana plants growing in a room that had been converted into a “elaborate growing, watering and lighting system,” Rivera said.

The plants, which were at various heights, had an estimated street value of $80,000, deputies said.