A homeowner in Valley Glen discovered 20 sticks of live dynamite inside an old freezer in her garage Thursday morning, prompting evacuations as Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad technicians worked to make the explosives safe.
A homeowner in Valley Glen was cleaning in her garage Thursday morning when she found what she thought could only be trouble—20 sticks of live dynamite hidden in the back of an old freezer.
Authorities say the Los Angeles Police Department responded to the 6100 block of Rhodes Avenue shortly before 9:30 a.m. after reports of a suspicious device. Neighbors around the home were evacuated as a precaution.
Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Warner Castillo said officers arrived, observed the dynamite, and withdrew to begin evacuations. “Our officers responded from North Hollywood, they observed the dynamite, they retreated,” he said. “We started evacuating people … about 500 feet away from that residence.”.
Castillo said the homeowner had no clue the dynamite sticks were in the garage, and no idea where they came from. “God forbid, some people could have lost their lives or even be maimed with that amount of dynamite,” he told KTLA.
The dynamite was classified as “lost/found property,” and Castillo said there is no criminal investigation.
Technicians from the LAPD bomb squad remained on scene for hours. They worked to render the dynamite sticks safe by soaking them in diesel, according to KTLA. The team was still on scene as of 4:30 p.m., according to an LAPD spokesperson.
Castillo emphasized the stakes if the explosives had detonated. He said the sticks had the potential to cause severe structural damage and hearing loss.
California has strict rules around dynamite purchases. Dynamite is generally restricted to licensed professionals working in mining and quarry operations. building demolitions. tunneling projects and specialized industrial activities. Those professionals typically need both state and local permits and permits through the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to buy the explosives.
The discovery in Valley Glen comes amid fresh public awareness of explosives mishandled or left unsecured. Last summer, three deputies with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department were killed when a grenade exploded at a training facility near East Los Angeles. The device was one of two removed from the garage of an apartment in Santa Monica after they were discovered by a tenant in July.
For now, what happened to the dynamite before it ended up in a freezer remains unclear—an absence that has neighbors watching the police perimeter closely and the homeowner trying to understand how something this dangerous could have been there all along.
Valley Glen Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad dynamite live explosives Rhodes Avenue evacuations
Freezer??? Like how does dynamite even fit in a freezer, that’s wild.
So there’s no investigation? That seems weird to me. If it was “lost/found property” then who loses 20 sticks of dynamite in a garage.
Wait are they saying the homeowner didn’t know it was there… so it was basically in her house the whole time?? Also soaking it in diesel sounds like a lot? I’m confused but I’m glad they evacuated.
This is why I don’t trust garages, man. Next thing you know your neighbor’s kid is hiding “art projects” and it’s actually explosives. Didn’t something similar happen with that Santa Monica thing? They’re probably gonna blame some random permit paperwork error or ATF or whatever, but nobody ever explains how it got there for real.