Burglary report leads to unrelated arrest

TERRA BELLA — A report of a burglary early Saturday led to the arrest of a 21-year-old man accused of keeping materials to manufacture an explosive device inside a garage.

The incident occurred at approximately 4:45 a.m. Saturday in the 237000 block of Avenue 95.

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Department reports that the homeowner reported someone stole a welder and a bicycle from a detached garage.

Deputies determined Aaron Conner, who had been arrested earlier that morning during an unrelated investigation, was responsible for the burglary. They later recovered the stolen items and returned them to the homeowner.

The sheriff’s department said that during the burglary investigation, deputies searched the detached garage, where they found gunpowder, nails, pellets and PVC pipe, “material used to construct an explosive device,” the sheriff’s department said.

Deputies collected the items and later arrested 21-year-old Steven Early of Terra Bella on suspicion of possession of substance material with intent to make a destructive device.

He was booked at the sheriff’s substation in Porterville.