The Placer County Sheriff’s Office said an “active” explosive device was found in a sedan during a routine traffic stop near Roseville, Calif., on April 7, 2026. 

A routine traffic stop went awry after a sheriff’s deputy noticed the fuse of an “active” explosive device in the vehicle, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.

Around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the deputy initiated a traffic stop for an obscured license plate just outside of Roseville near Industrial Avenue, according to the sheriff’s office spokesperson Elise Soviar. When the deputy approached the suspect’s sedan, they saw “a suspicious metal pipe with end caps and a fuse” on the console. 

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“It was just sitting there,” Soviar told SFGATE. 

Following the discovery, the driver and passenger were detained by the deputy, who called in the county’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to identify and remove the device. The team X-rayed the device and found it to be an “active pipe bomb,” the sheriff’s office said. The team then “safely retrieved” the explosive device from the vehicle and rendered it inoperable within a few hours of the initial traffic stop, Soviar confirmed. No injuries were reported, and there’s no information yet about why the suspect was allegedly carrying around an explosive in his car. 

After the device was discovered, the suspect was found to have multiple warrants out for his arrest, in addition to “suspected methamphetamine” in the vehicle, the sheriff’s office said. He was arrested on multiple charges, including possession of a controlled substance and possession of a destructive device. The suspect is being held on $530,000 bail, according to jail records, and he remains in custody as of Wednesday morning.

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