Bong mistaken for pipe bomb caused road closure

The discovery of a cylinder that resembled a pipe bomb but turned out to be a piece of homemade marijuana paraphernalia prompted a 90-minute road closure and a few evacuations in Sherman Heights, San Diego on Friday.

A worker at a construction site in the neighbourhood just east of Interstate 5 spotted the approximately 10-inch-long galvanized metal tube with capped ends in a pile of dirt and debris outside an apartment building in the street just after 9 a.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.



Authorities summoned the city's ordnance-disposal team, shut down several blocks of nearby Market Street and cleared eight people out of several nearby buildings, SDFRD spokesman Maurice Luque said.

The explosives experts examined the pipe and decided to blow it open with a rifle-like tool they carry for such purposes. After one of the caps was off the tube, the team determined that someone had built and used it as a type of marijuana bong or pipe, Luque said. Crews reopened the street and allowed people back into the evacuated buildings shortly before 11 a.m.

With video.