The makeshift bunker beneath a recently-displaced Fountain Valley homeless encampment was big enough for a grown person to stand inside, replete with wood-paneled walls and a support beam, and accessible only via a small hatch camouflaged to blend in with its dirt surroundings.
The half-loaded .357 Magnum found near the same camp, along the Santa Ana River, contained three empty shell casings – meaning it had been fired.
And the 1,000 bicycles discovered hidden away in the flood-control channel’s dark tunnel system in Santa Ana, two miles north of the encampment, could suggest a large-scale theft ring.
Orange County sheriff’s deputies and public employees said they uncovered unusual and dangerous conditions in the recently cleared homeless camps on the riverbed in Fountain Valley and in portions of the river to the north. The findings, they said, posed public safety risks and indicated that the area was rife with crime, though the sheriff’s department provided no evidence linking that the gun or bicycles came from
“It just backs up the data that we’ve collected, which says there is a significant criminal element in the homeless encampments,” sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Puckett said.
The sheriff’s department provided no evidence linking that the gun or bicycles to the homeless or the Fountain Valley encampment but said the investigation is ongoing.
County employees discovered the bunker Wednesday, Nov. 16, as part of a cleanup effort after the county forced about 200 people to move out of the area five days earlier.
The cavern’s hatch was concealed beneath a thin layer of dirt. But once workers opened the plywood trapdoor, they found a series of wooden steps that took them six feet underground, to a reinforced, 10-foot-by-10-foot room big enough for a 5-foot-7-inch person to stand upright.
Officials don’t know how the bunker was built or who used it.
“We’re not sure what (the room) was for – probably some type of living situation,” Puckett said. “It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
The county moved to clear the encampment, located between Warner and Edinger avenues, following months of complaints from neighbors that homeless people were trespassing, harassing residents and stealing from nearby homes. Some of the discoveries, officials said, add credence to those neighbors’ complaints and fears.
The gun, for example, is of interest to investigators. Puckett declined to say where the gun was found, though he indicated it was discovered a week ago. He also couldn’t discuss if the gun was used in any open crimes or other details of the investigation.
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