BOMB SCARES FALSE 45 PERCENT OF TIME LAST YEAR; HOAXES TIE UP NEEDED PERSONNEL.

Byline: Erin Gebroe Daily News Staff Writer

The call - like one last week at Saugus High - usually comes in about a suspicious-looking package.

The sheriff's bomb squad suits up, evacuates the area, then gets down to work.

But while each case is taken seriously, more often than not, the ``bomb'' is something as nonlethal as a box of crayons, a briefcase filled with papers or a lunch box. When they do determine a potentially deadly device to be a dud, explosive specialists relax. Sometimes they even chuckle at what they find, using levity to diffuse the tension on a seriously dangerous job.

``When we go on a bomb call, we still maintain our humor, shall we say,'' said Deputy Richard McClellan, a member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Arson/Explosive Detail.

The unit responded to 549 cases countywide last year, 45 percent of which turned out to be fake. These included a box of videocassettes; a basket filled with coffee, candy and potholders; a student's lunch box; and a can of used motor oil.

McClellan recalled responding to a call of a suspicious package on a residential driveway in Altadena.

Instead of putting on the standard protective clothing and approaching the package himself, McClellan opted to use a 4-foot-long, 600-pound robot with a remote-controlled claw that McClellan used to lift the package.

``As soon as I lifted it, it was very, very light. You could tell there was no weight to the thing,'' McClellan said. ``I got it rotated about half-way around, and all of a sudden looking at me was a little kitten.''

Once he saw the animal, he walked over to the package, and five kittens crawled out.

McClellan said that spending so much energy and time on false alarms does not annoy him.

``I feel relieved that nobody made a bomb and put it on this lady's porch,'' he said.

Others, however do get frustrated.

Suspicious objects almost always force areas to be cordoned, blocking traffic and pedestrian walkways.

``The people that we frustrate a lot of the time are the commuters and the people on the street,'' McClellan said.

A more serious frustration lies with local sheriff's and fire stations.

The report of a suspected pipe bomb at Saugus High School last Wednesday turned up a fake device, but the incident tied up eight deputies from the Santa Clarita sheriff's station, along with a sergeant and two firefighters, and forced the evacuation of the campus.

Sheriff's Lt. Steve Dolan said the concentration of deputies in one area puts them farther away from potential problems.

``Because we have less people out there, it's going to slow our response time down,'' Dolan said. ``It's a waste of our resources when we have a hoax like this. It shortchanges the rest of the community.''