2-Ton Cache of Fireworks Is Confiscated, Brothers Held

In what authorities called Thursday the largest seizure of illegal fireworks in county history, two tons of pyrotechnic material were confiscated at a house in a quiet Los Alamitos neighborhood and in a second location in San Bernardino County.

Los Alamitos police detectives and county fire investigators arrested two brothers Thursday on suspicion of amassing the illegal cache of firecrackers, aerial rockets, Roman candles and other pyrotechnics valued at $50,000 to $75,000.

Police said the brothers were apparently selling the fireworks, which included both illegal devices and so-called safe and sane fireworks, which can be marketed and used legally in some cities but not unincorporated areas.

The fireworks posed a significant hazard to the Los Alamitos neighborhood, police said. Earlier this week, a large cache of firecrackers and blasting caps stored in a Koreatown apartment in downtown Los Angeles exploded, injuring 10 bomb squad officers.

“It certainly posed a fire hazard if nothing else,� Detective Jim Jessen said. “Some of this stuff is about equal to the types of fireworks they shoot off at Disneyland.�

Neighbors Express Shock

Residents near the Los Alamitos house expressed shock over the episode, saying it seemed distinctly out of place in their peaceful neighborhood of well-tended houses occupied by a mix of younger families and older homeowners.

“We were all just kind of sitting out there amazed that it was happening,� said Samuel Wood, a manager at Rockwell International Corp., who lives a few doors down. “This is a nice neighborhood, very quiet. Nothing ever happens here. It’s about as dull a place as you’d find.�

Longshoreman Robert Gjetley, 47, was arrested at his Los Alamitos home about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 11400 block of Harrisburg Road after police found fireworks in 38 cardboard boxes in his basement and other parts of the house containing 750 to 1,000 pounds of fireworks, Jessen said.

Police arrested his brother, Donald, 44, early Thursday morning when they went to the San Bernardino County town of Phelan, where they seized 81 cases of fireworks stored in a 20-foot-long shipping container believed to be owned by Robert Gjetley, the detective said.

Robert Gjetley was released Thursday on $5,000 bail, and his brother was released on $10,000 bail, according to officials at Orange County Jail.

The episode unfolded when a confidential informant told police about the fireworks in the Los Alamitos house, Jessen said. As curious neighbors watched, fire trucks pulled up and detectives searched the house and Robert Gjetley’s mobile home.

Sheriff’s Department bomb squad deputies were called in as investigators removed the boxes brimming with fireworks. The older brother was arrested when he pulled up to the house in his van, police said.

The boxes of fireworks were moved to the sheriff’s training academy, then stored Thursday in a secure area while officials sought a court order to destroy the cache, Jessen said.

He said investigators learned during the search that more fireworks were being stored in a metal shipping container on property that Robert Gjetley apparently owns in Phelen. Officials obtained a search warrant, drove to the site and found the container--about half-full of fireworks--near several mobile homes.

County Fire Department investigators said they believe the case represents the largest single seizure of illegal fireworks ever in the county. In 1984, investigators confiscated fireworks with a street value of about $100,000, but that haul consisted of 19 cases of expensive rockets, designed for stadium displays, and other assorted fireworks.

Neighbors said they had been unaware that Robert Gjetley, who moved to the Los Alamitos house with his wife and several children a few years ago, was storing the illegal fireworks. “There were the parents and three or four kids, something like that,� said Wood, their neighbor. “I never really saw them out in front much, and I never spoke to them.�

While some residents expressed concern that the fireworks could have exploded, most seemed simply surprised to learn of such a cache hidden in their midst, Wood said.

“There were some comments about what it could have done to the houses and the fire problems it could have caused, but there really wasn’t a lot of concern,� he said.

Janet Potter, another neighbor, said she hoped the two brothers would “be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.�

“Every year they show film clips on the news of what even legal fireworks could do,� she said. “I don’t think people realize that they could cause serious injury or even death. It probably could have blown up their house, maybe the house next door.�

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