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Crime & Safety

Acid Thrown Into Laguna Beach Living Room Prompts Evacuation

A ski-masked wearing man threw a bottle of butyric acid into a second-floor apartment early Friday. Police don't know why the couple was targeted.

After a man in a ski-mask smashed the window of a Laguna Beach home with a rock and threw a bottle of toxic liquid inside, emergency crews evacuated two apartment buildings early Friday, authorities said.

Officials emptied seven apartment units at 429 Cypress Drive when residents and a responding Laguna Beach Police officer began experiencing shortness of breath, and eye, nose and skin irritation about 2:50 a.m.

Just minutes earlier, a woman called 911 to report that someone in a ski mask had thrown a rock through the window of her second-floor apartment, according to Lt. Jason Kravetz of the Laguna Beach Police Department.

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The woman’s husband tried to chase down the man but he escaped on foot.

The officer called the Laguna Beach Fire Department, which summoned the Orange County Fire Authority hazardous material team to investigate.

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The probe revealed that a bottle of butyric acid had been thrown into the apartment.  

Officials suspect that the ski-masked man used the rock to break the glass and then threw the bottle into the apartment living room.

Taped to the rock was some sort of device, which looked like a small plastic box, prompting officers to call in the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad.

 “We have no idea why this device was taped to the rock, but it was not a bomb,” Kravetz said.

On the couple’s white garage door, the words “Stalk someone else” were painted in black letters.

Kravetz said the couple didn’t know any possible reason for the attack.

“We don’t know at this point if they were particularly targeted or if someone else was targeted and [the suspect] got the wrong house."

At about sunrise, the entire five-unit apartment building was evacuated, as was a neighboring two-unit structure.

The Red Cross arrived on scene to provide shelter and food to those affected.

The apartment building will be red-tagged until the owner can bring in a private cleanup crew to remove the toxic chemicals.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Laguna Beach detectives at (949) 497-0389.

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