4 Small, Crude Bombs Floated Over Riverside

RIVERSIDE — At least four small, crude bombs have floated over the city in recent days, dangling from helium-filled trash bags and unnerving police who have yet to find a suspect or a motive behind them.

None of the four devices exploded, but they could easily have detonated--in the air or on a housetop, said Sgt. Robert Hanson of the Riverside Police Department.

“They are probably designed for aerial burst, but who knows where the fragments will come down, or whether the balloons will come down prematurely and start a fire or cause serious injury to someone,” Hanson said.

The makeshift bombs are three-inch-long metal cylinders filled with a small amount of explosives. A crude detonation device is attached to the cylinder, which is hung from the helium-filled plastic bag by a wire.

Hanson said it was unclear why the bombs did not explode--or whether other small bombs had detonated in the air but had not been reported to police.

The most recently discovered bomb was found in a bush in a residential neighborhood Wednesday afternoon. Another was found on a residential street before dawn last Friday by a passerby who alerted police. A third was recovered on the ground about two weeks ago by a resident who called police. That person reported to police on Tuesday that she saw a similar balloon get momentarily snagged in a tree before it blew away, Hanson said.

If the devices work properly, Hanson said, “there probably would not be a lot of physical evidence. We assume this guy wants them to go off in the air, but the potential to harm people is great because of possible miscalculations on his part.”