A caller's report of what appeared to be an explosive device sent the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bomb squad to a quiet residential block of Manhattan Beach Wednesday, prompting a partial evacuation and road closures as investigators worked to determine exactly what they were dealing with. Authorities discovered the possible device in the area, though details about the object itself were not immediately available.
Police responded to the 1100 block of Chestnut Avenue, where authorities ordered a partial evacuation of the immediate area, according to NBC Los Angeles. Manhattan Beach Police Department Officer Cole Barba confirmed the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bomb squad had been dispatched, and emergency alerts closed westbound Manhattan Beach Boulevard at Meadows Avenue while the investigation was underway, as reported by Patch. The bomb squad investigation was still active in the neighborhood as of Thursday's report.
An Affluent Block Near a School and Park
The stretch of Chestnut Avenue where the scare unfolded sits in an affluent section of East Manhattan Beach, close to Meadows Elementary School and Polliwog Park. Single-family homes on the surrounding blocks have sold for between $2.4 million and $4.4 million over the past two years, according to Redfin listings. It is also a neighborhood where residents have a track record of civic engagement, having testified before the Manhattan Beach City Council in the past on issues like neighborhood traffic and preservation of the nearby park.
Because Manhattan Beach does not maintain its own bomb squad, the city leans on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Enforcement Bureau Arson/Explosives Detail whenever a suspicious device is reported. That specialized unit deploys bomb disposal technicians and explosive-detection K-9 teams under county operational guidelines. Manhattan Beach police also field an Aerial Response Team equipped with tactical drones, which can be used to visually sweep an area and help establish a safety perimeter before officers move in on the ground.
A Unit Still Grieving Its Own Losses
The detail called out to Chestnut Avenue carries a heavier weight than most specialized law enforcement units right now. In July 2025, three veteran bomb squad detectives with the Arson/Explosives Detail were killed in an explosion during a training exercise at the department's Biscailuz Training Facility in East Los Angeles, a tragedy Sheriff Robert Luna described as one of the deadliest single days in the department's history.
It is unclear whether the object found on Chestnut Avenue will ultimately be confirmed as a real explosive or determined to be a hoax, and no suspect has been identified in connection with the report. The distinction carries real legal stakes either way. Under California Penal Code Section 148.1, knowingly making a false bomb report is a crime that can be charged as a misdemeanor or felony, while Section 18710 makes unlawful possession of an actual explosive or destructive device a felony punishable by up to three years in state prison.
A Rare Disruption for a Quiet Beach City
Bomb threats are an outlier in Manhattan Beach, where weekly police summaries typically show 700 to 900 calls for service dominated by property theft and vehicle burglaries rather than explosive threats. The last time the city saw disruption on this scale was back in December 2015, when repeated bomb threats against Mira Costa High School forced campus lockdowns, evacuations, and multi-agency police sweeps across the South Bay.
This week's episode marks the latest in a string of unusual public safety scares to rattle the small beach community, following a stranger found living in a garage earlier this month and a kidnapping scare at Sand Dune Park in July. Key questions remain open, including whether the object recovered on Chestnut Avenue was confirmed as a genuine explosive device or a fake, and what specific evidence first prompted the evacuation order.
