UPDATE, MARCH 30, 7:53 P.M.: Donald Paul Busteed has been slapped with charges that could send him to state prison for 10 years and eight months if convicted, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office (OCDA). He faces three felony counts of possession of a destructive device in a public place, a felony count of an explosion of a destructive device and a felony count of intent to unlawfully make a destructive device. Those charges include the incidents detailed in the original post that led to Busteed’s arrest by the Anaheim Police Department as well as Sunday’s blast of a pipe bomb in an alleyway near Anaheim Boulevard and Wilhelmina Street, the OCDA says.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 30, 7:01 A.M.: Police believe Donald Paul Busteed is the mad bomber of Anaheim.
Travel back to Nov. 13, 2015, when patrons of the Lowe’s hardware store in the 1500 block of North Lemon Avenue discovered an undetonated pipe bomb outside the main exit doors. The Orange County sheriff’s bomb squad retrieved the device and rendered it safe.
Nearly a month later, on Dec. 11, 2015, an Anaheim resident discovered another undetonated pipe bomb at the base of a utility pole in an alley in the 300 block of South Claudina. The bomb squad detonated that one in place and collected evidence.
On Jan. 4, a pipe bomb exploded at a business in the 2800 block of East White Star. Detectives interviewed Busteed, an employee at the business, who confessed to detonating the devide, police say. He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an explosive device and booked into Orange County Jail on $1 million bail.
“A subsequent search of Busteed’s garage yielded items associated with the manufacture of explosive devices,” says Sgt. Daron Wyatt, the Anaheim Police spokesman.
Busteed pleaded guilty, was sentenced to jail and was released from custody in mid-January, although he remained on probation.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the earlier Lowe’s and Claudina incidents led to Busteed becoming a person of interest in those cases, Wyatt said.
“After forensic testing of the material from all three devices, it is believed Busteed is responsible for the placement of all three explosive devices,” the spokesman explained.
Busteed was busted again Monday afternoon. But that was a day after yet another explosion at the base of a utility pole in an alley in the 600 block of North Anaheim Boulevard.
“Detectives are exploring the potential of Busteed’s involvement in Sunday’s explosion,” says Wyatt, prompting this response from the peanut gallery:
“You think!?!”
Busteed has again been booked at Orange County Jail for possession of explosive devices and probation violations. No bail was set.
