False Alarm - Big Rig Found Near Burbank Airport Hauled Fireworks

June 23, 2003

BURBANK — Police today found film-studio pyrotechnics but no illegal explosives on a truck parked near Burbank Airport, contrary to a warning from an anonymous caller, officials said.

"It contained movie-type pyrotechnics ... there are no illegal explosives on board that rig," said Los Angeles police Lt. Art Miller.

Miller said the truck examined by the LAPD bomb squad this morning was the one that was being sought based on the weekend tip to the California Highway Patrol.

He said the truck driver, believed to be from Texas, has been "100 percent cooperative" and the anonymous tip may have stemmed from a labor dispute. Airport officials briefed on the situation said the dispute may have involved the driver's non-union status.

After the truck was found this morning, streets were ordered closed in the area, airport officials shut down one of the airport's two runways, the north-south runway, and Metrolink halted its trains from the Antelope Valley at the Sylmar-San Fernando station, avoiding the station near the airport.

But shortly after 7 a.m., the runway and area streets were reopened and normal Metrolink service resumed, authorities said.

The truck was discovered near San Fernando Boulevard and Clybourn Avenue, according to the Burbank Police Department. Miller said it was reported by the owner of a nearby storage lot.

Despite the alert raised by the anonymous tip, the truck went through several checkpoints before reaching the Southland. Miller said human error may have been a factor in the truck's unimpeded journey.

On Saturday, authorities received an anonymous tip that a stolen truck packed with explosives was on its way to the Burbank Airport from Texas, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

The call was received by the CHP office in Barstow, said CHP Officer Brian Joy.

The male caller said the truck was on its way to the Burbank Airport from somewhere in Texas and would probably arrive sometime this morning, Joy said.

"He (the tipster) indicated he was aware of a truck," CHP Commissioner Spike Helmick said yesterday. "He described the truck to us, that was en route to the L.A. area, specifically Burbank, carrying a lot of explosives and about a hundred blasting caps."

As for a motive, the caller said it had to do with the war on terrorism.

"This is all part of the world situation today," Helmick said. "Obviously unhappy about the war. But again, we get a lot of these. This person had quite a bit of facts, and it could be a person just has a little better imagination, but either way we have to check it out."

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