Police detonate suspicious device on Stearns Wharf

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Stearns Wharf was closed to traffic for an hour yesterday and the Ty Warner Sea Center was evacuated while the Santa Barbara Police Department’s Bomb Squad detonated at suspicious device that appeared to be a pipe bomb.
The suspected bomb was reported to police at 3 p.m. and was detonated at 5:30. Sgt. Mike McGrew said the device consisted of a piece of pipe with two end caps and a wire sticking out from the top. He said officials determined the pipe did not likely contain any explosive material.


“It was something I wasn’t going to pick up so we called the bomb squad,” McGrew said. “When it’s something like that you’ve got to be really careful.”
McGrew said witnesses told police the pipe was originally hanging from the wharf.
As a result, McGrew said some suspect the device was being used as part of a GPS scavenger hunt, which entails finding notes at various coordinates throughout the city. But without the note, that’s just speculation.
“Since we blew it up we really couldn’t tell if there was a note inside of it,” McGrew said.
He said the bomb squad’s robot blew the pipe up with an explosive liquid.