Car search yields explosives

On Monday evening (Aug. 14), Butte County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call from a passerby who was suspicious about a vehicle parked on East Evan Reimer Road in Gridley. Upon arrival, Deputy Matthew Galvez says he saw a methamphetamine pipe in clear view, so he restrained the sole occupant of the car—36-year-old Nicholas Nicholson, of Yuba City—to perform a full search.

While searching the vehicle, deputies Galvez and Mark Demmers found a loaded gun in a backpack and what appeared to be a pipe bomb in the trunk. Demmers deployed his K-9 unit, Ray, who alerted to an explosive odor. The Butte County Inter-Agency Bomb Squad confirmed the device was explosive and rendered it safe.

Nicholson (pictured) was booked into Butte County Jail on $612,000 bail. Anyone with information about the explosive device is asked to call BCSO at 538-7321.