Bomb Hoax Prompts Mass Evacuation

Nearly 400 blocks in and around Hollywood were turned into a rain slick ghost town Saturday after a man in a truck threatened to blow up 5,000 pounds of explosives near Paramount Studios, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes and businesses and a local television station to broadcast out of borrowed offices.

Though the 64-year-old suspect surrendered at 2:15 p.m., it was not until five hours later that police determined that the truck contained no bomb and they reduced the evacuation area to a few adjacent blocks while they waited for the vehicle to be towed away.

Having no idea if they were dealing with a hoax or an irate bomber, police were cautious throughout the day, ordering residents from the community surrounding the scene.

“After Oklahoma you don’t take chances,” Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams told evacuees who had taken refuge at Hollywood High School.

The incident began about 10 a.m., when the suspect--later identified by police as auto body shop owner Abram Bene Nacham of Long Beach--pulled up in front of the offices of KCAL-TV Channel 9. Witnesses said he placed plastic tape around the truck and, when asked if something was the matter, announced that he had a bomb.

“The person was so calm,” said restaurant owner Peter Sargologos, who walked past the scene and heard the exchange.

A banner unfurled on the side of the truck proclaimed, “Don’t shoot. 5,000 lbs. of dynamite” and accused “AAA,” the American Automobile Assn., of damaging his reputation.

Nacham’s civil attorney, Robert Burlison Jr., said his client apparently staged the bomb threat to call attention to a legal dispute with the auto club’s Southern California branch, which he sued unsuccessfully after it accused his Signal Hill shop of failing to properly perform contract work.

“He’s not this type of person,” Burlison said. “It was something he elected to do to bring attention to the matter and he’s obviously done that.”

Nacham was booked for possession of a fake explosive device and held in lieu of $1-million bail, police said.

After parking his truck, Nacham called 911 from his cell phone and then spent the next several hours talking to authorities, who put hostage negotiators on the line with him while behavior science analysts listened from a nearby site.

At one point during the negotiations, Los Angeles Police Lt. Anthony Alba said, Nacham “wanted to talk to [U.S. Atty. Gen.] Janet Reno because of some financial problems he had with the federal government, possibly tax-related problems.”

Nacham’s wife and son arrived on the scene, but did not play a role in his surrender, police said.

More than 250 law enforcement officers, including the bomb squad, were called to the scene. After Nacham left the truck and walked across the street to surrender, a remote-controlled forklift and two tank-like personnel carriers were used to examine the vehicle, which had what looked like a pipe bomb sitting on the top of the cab.

With the contents of the truck a mystery for most of the day, authorities expanded the evacuation area until it was bounded by Sunset and Beverly boulevards and Western and Cole avenues.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses were parked as blast barriers and police drove through neighborhoods, broadcasting evacuation orders on bullhorns. On blocks closest to the truck, police officers went door to door.

Emergency shelters were opened at Fairfax and Hollywood high schools, and buses were brought in to transport evacuees. For several hours, Hollywood Freeway offramps were closed between downtown and the Cahuenga Pass, creating gridlock for miles amid a downpour.

Some who were driven from their homes were angered by the massive disruption, others were unfazed.

Larchmont resident Janis Dinwiddie was hanging out at the neighborhood wine shop, her cat and bird safely resting in their respective cages in the back seat of her car. Her husband had continued with their Saturday plans and taken their two young sons to a Westside library for the afternoon.

Larchmont Village shops, just south of the evacuation area, were doing a brisk business.

“Everyone’s in good spirits and taking it in stride,” Dinwiddie said. “It’s all you can do.”

Not everyone took the evacuation orders seriously. Some never left home and others returned, convinced they were too far from the truck to be in danger.

Madale Watson, 85, said she had lived in her North Irving Boulevard house too long--56 years--to worry. She heeded the orders to leave long enough to have lunch with a neighbor, but then went home, concerned that she had left her cat, Abby 2, in the house.

“Lord, that’s not very intelligent to walk off and leave that animal,” she said, scolding herself. She had gotten the cat carrier out, so that if she had to leave again, Abby would go with her.

Some people didn’t hear the evacuation orders. Nurse Sue Anders, 39, said she was sitting in her El Centro Avenue apartment drinking coffee and watching a television movie when a girlfriend phoned and told her, “You are supposed to be evacuated.”

She peaked outside and asked a police officer if she should be there. Told she shouldn’t, she set off to catch a bus or find a pay phone to call someone to pick her up.

“As long as I’ve got my makeup, my hair dryer and my money, I’m fine,” Anders said.

Still, summing up her community’s exasperation, she said, “This is totally ridiculous--for this man to put 5,000 pounds of dynamite in his truck and disrupt an entire neighborhood.”

At KCAL, the day was one of scrambling to stay on the air without a studio. The staff succeeded with the help of a technician on Mt. Wilson, program tapes grabbed by fleeing employees and borrowed production space.

“We just knew we had to keep KCAL on the air,” said Don Corsini, vice president of sports operations and production.

Robert Bradley, a Minnesota tourist who stopped his car to see what all the fuss was about, was not surprised that a would-be bomber had camped out in Hollywood. “It’s what you expect in L.A.,” he said.

Times staff writers Greg Braxton, K. Connie Kang and Doug Shuit contributed to this story.