Police Detonate 2 Pipe Bombs Found in Garage

Two pipe bombs found inside the garage of a Tujunga home were detonated by Los Angeles police officers early Sunday, knocking down power lines and scattering debris for hundreds of feet, authorities said.

No one was injured in the blast, but dozens of neighbors who had been evacuated from their homes were kept away for several hours.

Police said the pipe bombs were found at the home of a local artist a short time after officers had gone to the home in response to a report of an illegal drug lab.

No drugs or drug-making equipment were recovered after an anonymous call on Saturday evening led authorities to the home at 10021 Plainview Ave., police said.

But after officers left the scene, the man who lives in the home, Martin Vogel, noticed a strong chemical smell and discovered what appeared to be two pipe bombs lying amid six liquid-filled jars in a box in his garage.

Vogel called 911. Officers returned to his home about 9 p.m. and evacuated dozens of neighbors in the vicinity before LAPD bomb-squad members detonated the devices about 3:30 a.m.

Neighbors said the blast blew a hole in the wall of Vogel’s garage, knocked down overhead power lines, and scattered debris for hundreds of feet.

“We thought it was a really bad prank until we heard the boom,” said Holly Hunter, Vogel’s girlfriend.

She and Vogel, who is in a wheelchair, and many of their neighbors heard the blast from about two blocks away, where yellow police tape kept anxious neighbors from their homes.

“You heard that blast and you had no doubt that this thing was real,” said Dean Neiswanger, who was on his way home Saturday night when he came upon the police blockade.

A spokeswoman for the city Department of Water and Power said the downed lines were secondary sources of power, providing electricity to 10 homes. Power was restored by 5:15 a.m. Sunday, she said.

Later Sunday, bomb squad detectives continued to investigate, snapping pictures of Vogel’s garage and gathering bomb debris from around the neighborhood.

Mike Partain, an LAPD spokesman, said police were initially called to Vogel’s house to assist the Los Angeles Fire Department, which was responding to a report of an illegal methamphetamine lab operating in the garage. Partain said police have no suspects or motive in the case.

Vogel, however, said he told detectives he suspects a former business partner, who he said is angry over a failed project the two were involved in and who had previously threatened harm. He said the man once pushed him out of his wheelchair, and on another occasion hid a dead chicken in the ivy that grows on the fence outside his home.

“It was a stink bomb,” Vogel said. “It just rotted in there and smelled horrible. There were flies everywhere.”

Vogel said he suspected the man because he had talked of committing such pranks in the past. Partain refused to discuss Vogel’s statements about an alleged suspect.

Vogel, 33, lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle-racing accident in 1986. He uses his wheelchair to make paintings by rigging the wheels to evenly distribute paint as he rolls across the canvas.

He said he was showing his work at an art show Saturday evening when he got a call from a friend informing him that police were at his house.

Vogel said he came home from the art show, which was being held at the nearby McGroarty Art Center, and was briefly detained and questioned about the alleged methamphetamine lab.

Vogel said he gave officers the keys to the garage and that they went in and searched the premises. A short time later they came back out, returned his keys and left.

Vogel said that after the officers left, he noticed that a side door to the garage had been forced open. He went in and followed what he described as a strong chemical smell to its source in the corner of the garage.

There, he found the two pipe bombs and liquid-filled jars in a soggy cardboard beer box.

“It was pretty wild-smelling stuff--pretty potent,” Vogel said. “I don’t know how those guys missed it.”

Bomb-squad investigators at the scene Sunday morning declined to discuss the case, citing an ongoing investigation. Partain, the police spokesman, said he did not know what type of substance was contained in the jars.

Vogel said he was not only frightened by the pipe bombs, but embarrassed as well.

“Now I’m worried about what all my neighbors are gonna think,” he said. “You know . . . ‘Who is this guy involved with?’ ”