ATF Investigates Theft Of Bomb Material

Ammonium Nitrate Stolen From SD Blasting Company

POSTED: 11:04 a.m. PDT July 18, 2003

ALPINE, Calif. -- Federal agents are investigating the theft of 1,100 pounds of an explosive chemical from construction companies in San Diego and California in the past week.

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	Two Ammonium Nitrate Heists

Both thefts involve ammonium nitrate. The chemical is a key ingredient in the bomb that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

Earlier this week, 700 pounds of the chemical were stolen from Tom C. Dyke Drilling and Blasting in Alpine, Calif., San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokesman Chris Saunders said. The thieves used a cutting torch and bolt cutters to get through a chain-link fence. They broke into a locked storage trailer and stole 16 bags of the chemical, Saunders said.

Two of the bags were found, but 700 pounds remains missing. The thieves took nothing else, Saunders said.

A similar theft took place at the Pike View Quarry near Colorado Springs. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued a nationwide alert Monday after workers discovered that eight 50-pound bags of an ammonium nitrate-based explosive had vanished.

Saunders told NBC 7/39 that Sheriff's investigators don't believe the Colorado theft is related to the Alpine theft. But federal investigators in Colorado said that the two thefts are similar and might be connected.

Ammonium nitrate is used to make explosives but it is not dangerous unless combined with other materials, Saunders said. Timothy McVeigh used about 4,800 pounds of the chemical to build the bomb that blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.