Suspicious device detonated in Escondido

The San Marcos sheriff’s station received a report of a suspicious-looking device near a mailbox in the 3100 block of North Broadway in Escondido shortly before 7:30 a.m. on August 1 .

Upon arrival to the scene, responding deputies cordoned off the area and immediately notified their bomb and arson unit. It could not be determined whether the suspect item was an pipe bomb or a fake device, so, “for safety reasons,” according to sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. E. Dayrit, the “detectives decided to disrupt the item on scene, rendering it safe.”

Dayrit would not provide further information on the procedure used to disrupt the item, saying, “It wouldn’t be in the best interest of the unit to provide any information that the bad guys could then use to improve on how they build these kinds of things.”

The remnants of the device were collected as evidence for follow-up investigation. There were no injuries or property damage reported.