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At 1:37 pm on Friday, the South Pasadena Police Department closed down the corner of Mission Street & Mound – two businesses were evacuated, the fire department was evacuated, the police department was evacuated along with city hall – including Ellen’s Silkscreen.
According to Lt. Shannon Robledo, The South Pasadena Fire Department received an ammunition box from a resident who found it cleaning out a garage. The box had what looked like two explosive devices in it, about the size of a soda cans, with what appeared to be a fuse coming from the top. The devices did not look ‘homemade’.
The resident did what she thought she was supposed to do: take it to the fire department for disposal.
According to South Pasadena Fire Cptn. Dunn: “It’s safest to stay away from anything that looks like an explosive and immediately call 911 rather than try to touch or move such a thing.”
Following high-level safety protocol, the streets around the fire and police departments were evacuated and closed off and the LA County Bomb Squad was called-in to collect, inspect and dispose of the probable explosives; while police and fire kept the public well away from the situation.
Officials report that the contents of the ammunition box were old explosives, possibly from on old construction site originally, and the situation “…could have been very serious if they had exploded in front of the fire department building…”
The entire incident lasted about an hour without further incident. Nearly all South Pasadena emergency services were tied-up due to the situation.
