Taxi device spurs bomb hoax in Costa Mesa

Deepa Bharath

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad made a trip to Costa

Mesa on Sunday to check out a suspected bomb that turned out to be a

hoax, officials said Tuesday.

The device was a black box “that made noises and had blinking lights”

mounted with magnets on the hood of a taxi parked in the 2200 block of

Fordham Drive near Wilson Park, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dale Birney.

The call to police came either early in the morning or about 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, Birney said. He said he is unsure of the timing based on the

information entered in the department’s computer system.

“We evacuated the area around the car for a period of time,” Birney

said. He added that the bomb squad examined the device on the spot and

determined it was bogus.