Police Discover Man With 4 Pipe Bombs in His Car

An Anaheim man was arrested in Santa Ana early Wednesday morning when police found four homemade pipe bombs and materials for building other bombs in his car, police said.

Santa Ana Officer Kathy Ahearn was on patrol about 3 a.m. and became suspicious of a man in a 1977 Oldsmobile in the parking lot of Vee Parts and Accessories, 805 N. Harbor Blvd.

Ahearn approached the occupant, Robert Melvin Giles of Anaheim, and saw the bombs, bomb materials and a loaded .45-caliber handgun in the car.

Giles, 37, was arrested on suspicion of felony possession of explosive devices, possession of materials to make explosive devices and misdemeanor possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle.He was taken to Orange County Jail. Bail was set at $25,000.

Bomb Squad Seizes Devices and Materials

The County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad seized the materials and dismantled the pipe bombs, police said.

“The investigation is continuing,” Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said. “It is not known why he parked in the lot at 3 a.m. He gave no statement.”

Thomas said Giles works in the electronics industry, but police do not know where he was most recently employed.

An employee at Vee, a Volkswagen parts business, said Wednesday that no one there had heard of Giles.