Irvine teen’s home science lab raided by the FBI

Science is not a crime.

A 17-year-old biological sciences student at UC Irvine got an unexpected visit from the FBI after a maintenance worker misunderstood his garage chemistry setup and called in the cops. The response escalated quickly: hazmat teams, the FBI, and even the California National Guard’s civil support unit descended on a gated community while investigators worried over a teen’s experiments.

The teenager, Amalvin Fritz, says it’s a misunderstanding. His lab, he says, consists of fairly basic chemistry equipment and store-bought materials like acetone, Epsom salt, and cyclooctatetraene — the kind of supplies many hobby chemists can purchase online or at hardware stores.

The incident began last Monday when a maintenance worker responded to a leak inside Fritz’s family home. It was unrelated to his garage setup; however, his lab caught the worker’s attention. The worker notified the landlord, who called authorities.

The Irvine Police Department and Orange County Fire Authority initially responded to the report of “suspicious circumstances,” and stated that items needed further investigation. The FBI’s hazmat team and the California National Guard’s 9th Civil Support Team — which handles weapons of mass destruction — were brought in.

Fritz and his family stayed in a hotel for a week while the investigation unfolded. Crews were seen going in and out of his home wearing full hazmat suits.

“It was a small chemistry setup. I wouldn’t describe it as anything more complex than a sixth-grade science lab,” Fritz said.

ABC7

The young science enthusiast and his family have spent a week out of their home while authorities comb through the setup. Fritz says he hopes the experience won’t discourage curiosity and that maybe the next time someone sees a teenager experimenting with chemistry in a garage, the first assumption won’t be “weapons of mass destruction.”