'Acid Bombs' Placed Outside African American Woman's Home In OC
ROSSMOOR (CBSLA.com) — Police are investigating multiple "acid bombs" that were placed outside an African American woman's home in Orange County on Sunday.
The Rossmoor mom, who wished to remain unidentified, said she stepped outside of her residence on Mainway Drive when she saw something peculiar.
"I noticed four bottles. Three laying in the yard and one situated in the driveway next to the automobiles," she said. "My instincts told me it didn't look right."
While the woman called 911, one of the bottles blew up.
It turned out they were explosive devices filled with acid.
"I could have been out there. I was standing over these bottles looking to see what they were," she said.
Kent McBride, a bomb squad investigator from the Orange County Sheriff's Department, was the first on the scene. He said he detonated the three remaining bottles and then found another one across the street in a tree.
"For this household to have so many is obviously a concern," McBride said.
Although investigators don't believe the incident is a hate crime, they think the bottles were intentionally placed close to the victim's yard, possibly by juveniles involved with a prank.
"I think you cross the line from it being a prank when you have the potential to hurt people," said the victim.
The sheriff's department is investigating four similar incidents of "bottle bombs" in Rossmoor, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach.
