California IN BRIEF : SANTA ANA : Pipe Bomb Hidden in Stereo Explodes

A pipe bomb hidden in a borrowed stereo blew up when the stereo was plugged in at a motel and an apparently unrelated bomb exploded on a store roof, police said. “It’s kind of unusual to have them so close together,” said Sgt. Bob Ensley, but he doubted that the explosions were at all connected. The booby-trapped stereo went off when Kathy Dastrup plugged it in at her motel room. Dastrup, 32, suffered only minor injuries because she was bending near a table at the time, said Ensley. An acquaintance, Herman Nathaniel Belkins, 21, who had borrowed the stereo, was sitting on a couch 12 feet away and was uninjured. Ensley said he did not know who loaned Belkins the equipment. About 90 minutes earlier, a pipe bomb exploded on the roof of a K mart store. Police released no additional information on the store blast, and K mart officials were not available.