Pipe Bomb Shuts 2 Garden Grove Freeway Ramps

A pipe bomb discovered along the Garden Grove Freeway was diffused Saturday after authorities closed two Beach Boulevard freeway ramps.

The pipe, five inches long and an inch wide, was found at 8 a.m. by a worker for the California Department of Transportation in ice plant on the westbound side of the freeway just east of Beach Boulevard in Garden Grove, Police Lt. Scott Hamilton said.

The device, designed to scatter shrapnel, was filled with gunpowder and lead pellets and had a fuse that could be ignited with a match, Hamilton said. It did not appear to be placed to threaten drivers, he said.

“It was just lying in the ice plant as if it had been thrown from a car,” Hamilton said. He said he did not know how long the bomb had been there.

The California Highway Patrol closed the on- and off-ramps to Beach Boulevard for about 90 minutes while the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad diffused the bomb.

An investigation by the bomb squad and Garden Grove police is continuing. Results of fingerprint tests on the bomb are expected in a few days, Hamilton said.