Civic Center Evacuated After Fake Bomb Found

The Civic Center was evacuated for 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon after police found a device that looked like a pipe bomb among evidence seized at the home of an armed-robbery suspect, authorities said.

The Orange County sheriff’s bomb squad was called in and eventually determined that the device was a fake, Brea Police Sgt. Robert Bugbee said.

Brea police said they arrested James Elza King, 45, at his Diamond Bar home Wednesday on suspicion of committing armed robberies at a Tower Records store in Brea and two other locations, in West Covina and Azusa.

A search warrant allowed detectives to collect evidence from the suspect’s home. Officers took the items to the Brea police station, which is in the Civic Center complex.

Two detectives were sorting the items when they found what they thought was a pipe bomb “buried at the bottom of something that had been seized,” Bugbee said. “Thankfully, it was a facsimile.”