Bomb Threat at Market Called Prank

A bomb threat called in to a Laguna Beach supermarket Wednesday caused a traffic jam along Coast Highway while police officers searched for suspicious packages.

The manager at the Pavilions supermarket at 600 N. Coast Highway received a call about 2:20 p.m. from a man who said there were two bombs in the store set to go off in an hour, said Capt. Paul Workman, a spokesman for the Laguna Beach Police Department.

The decision was made to evacuate the 50 people in the store, he said. After an hour passed and there were no explosions, two police officers searched the store. When they didn’t find anything, it was determined that the call was a prank, Workman said.

But traffic along busy Coast Highway slowed as motorists came upon several emergency vehicles, including three fire engines, he said.

Workman said it was unclear if the threat was related to the supermarket strike, now in its 11th week. Pavilions is one of the chains involved in the labor dispute.

“We all know there’s a strike going, and we had a bomb threat,” Workman said, “but there’s nothing to point the finger at who made the call.”

By late afternoon, Workman said, the store had resumed normal operations.