Police, FBI agents and firefighters with the Orange County Fire Authority responded Tuesday to an Irvine home where a teenager previously investigated over a homemade chemistry lab was reportedly conducting experiments involving chemicals.
The teen was investigated at the end of February after the family’s landlord in a gated community in the area of Cartwheel and Iluna contacted police about the then-17-year-old’s homemade science lab in the rented home.
The family has since moved a couple of streets away to the area of Crater, where police were called again just before 10 a.m. Tuesday regarding a chemical odor, said Kyle Oldoerp of the Irvine Police Department.
The family’s attorney, CJ Ray, said his clients were fully cooperating with law enforcement.
The FBI confiscated the teen’s chemicals and equipment during the earlier investigation, Ray said. The teen, now 18, has graduated from UC Irvine and plans to attend medical school, Ray said.
“He has a theory about curing cancer,” Ray said.
His aunt’s death from cancer motivated the teen to pursue a cure for the disease, Ray said.
After the family left the rented home earlier this year, they purchased a new home in late April and the teen resumed his experiments, Ray said.
The teen had moved barrels containing chemicals to the backyard to make room in the house for his mother and sister, who attends college on the East Coast, Ray said.
“A neighbor might have seen those barrels and smelled something,” Ray said. “And now we’re literally back at square one.”
The teen, who was a juvenile when law enforcement first visited the family earlier this year, was never charged, Ray said.
“We anticipate no charges in this incident,” Ray said. “He’s an 18-year-old trying to find a cure for cancer.”
The attorney added, “All of the chemicals found anyone can buy. You don’t even have to be over the age of 18. There’s nothing special about what the kid was doing other than trying to find a cure for cancer, which is special.”
The family respects that law enforcement has a job to do, but, “We know there’s no criminality here so do what you’ve got to do but let’s wrap it up quick because there’s no there there,” Ray said.